NGC 376
Globular cluster in the constellation Tucana
NGC 376 is a young open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Tucana. It was discovered on September 2, 1826, by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Dreyer, a Danish/British astronomer, described it as a "globular cluster, bright, small, round." It is irregular in form, with a central spike.
The cluster is located in the eastern extension of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a nearby dwarf galaxy. It may have already lost 90% of its original mass and is in the process of dissolving into the SMC. As a result, it has achieved a relatively low concentration of stars and is no longer in dynamic equilibrium. The cluster is about 28 million years old and contains ~3,400 times the mass of the Sun. It has a core radius of 7.6 ± 0.3 ly and a tidal radius of 19.2 ± 0.7 ly.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “NGC 376”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- NGC376 - HST - Potw2249a.jpg by Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, G. De Marchi, CC BY 4.0
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