Omega Centauri

Omega Centauri — star cluster, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Omega Centauri in an interactive 3D star cluster. Fly among its real Gaia member stars, each placed at its catalogued position.

The biggest and brightest globular cluster in the Milky Way: millions of ancient stars in a ball about 150 light-years across, visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. Its mix of star generations suggests it may be the core of a small galaxy the Milky Way swallowed.

Type

Globular cluster — the Milky Way’s largest

Distance

17,700 light-years

Age

~12 billion years

Stars

156,530 Gaia members shown · ~10 million in all

Mass

~3.9 million Suns

Shown here

Each star at its Gaia sky position (Vasiliev & Baumgardt 2021)

Depths

Illustrative: each star is set along its sightline by the cluster’s measured density profile

Soft glow

Illustrative: the crowded core’s light that Gaia cannot separate into stars — the measured brightness profile minus the stars shown

Explore Omega Centauri in 3D

Omega Centauri is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.