Terzan 5: The 'fossil' remains of the Milky Way galaxy formation

Through the Hubble space telescope, scientists in Italy have discovered a dense cloud of stars in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy, which can reveal a lot about the past formation of galaxies. of us today.

This stellar thick cloud is called the Terzan 5, which is a surviving "fossil" of the early days when the Milky Way galaxy was formed. Terzan 5 contains ingredients believed to be the material blocks that once created the Milky Way galaxy, which contains our solar system, because they have materials similar to the oldest stars in the Milky Way.

Terzan 5 is known as a globular star cluster.

This Terzan 5 is located about 19,000 light-years away from Earth, containing two types of inner stars that have different components and age differences of about 7 billion years. Some have a life expectancy of about 12 billion years, while others are around 4.5 billion years or more.

According to the research team, Terzan 5 is known as a globular star cluster, unlike any other constellations they have identified, which is considered a living fossil that survives from formation. Milky Way galaxy. While other stars die, disintegrate and merge together to form other planets, the Terzan 5 remains as a monument that marks the formation of our galaxy billions of years ago.

We think that some of the remaining intact remnants of the gas remains somewhere in Terzan 5. "This" fossil "discovery allows astronomers to recreate an important part. of the history of our Milky Way galaxy formation ". Professor Francesco Ferrato, lead author of the study at the University of Bologna, Italy, said.