Messier 92
{{Short description|Globular cluster in the constellation Hercules}}
{{Infobox globular cluster
| name = Messier 92
| image = M92 Hubble WikiSky.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| caption = Center of M92 by HST; 1.44{{prime}} view
| credit =
| epoch = J2000
| constellation = Hercules
| dist_ly = {{Convert|26.7|e3ly|kpc|abbr=on|lk=on}}
| appmag_v = 6.4{{cite web |url=https://messier.seds.org/m/m092.html |title=Messier 92 |access-date=30 April 2022 |website=SEDS Messier Catalog}}
| size_v = 14' arc minutes
| radius_ly =54 lydistance × sin( diameter_angle / 2 ) = 54 ly. radius
| v_hb =
| notes =
| names = M92, NGC 6341, GCl 59
}}
Messier 92 (also known as M92, M 92, or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Hercules.
Discovery
It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 27, 1777, then published in the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch during 1779.{{cite book |last1=Bode |title=Astronomisches Jahrbuch oder Ephemeriden für das Jahr 1782. |trans-title=Astronomical Yearbook or Ephemerides for the Year 1782. |date=1779 |publisher=George Jacob Decker |location=Berlin, (Germany) |page=156 |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=fRJ_e8z9nSoC&pg=GBS.RA1-PA156&hl=en |language=German |chapter=Zweyter Theil 20. Beobachtung des Kometen von 1779 und Entdeckung einiger neuen Nebelsterne [Second Part. 20. Observation of the comet of 1779 and discovery of some new nebulae]}} From p. 156: " […] ich am 27. Decemb. 1777 einen neuen, mir nicht bekannten Nebelfleck im Herkules, südwestlich unter dem Stern ⍳ an dessen Fusse entdeckt, der sich in einer mehrentheils runden Figur mit einem blassen Lichtschimmer zeigt." ( […] on the 27th December 1777, I discovered a new nebula, which was unknown to me, in Hercules, southwest under the star ⍳ [iota] at his feet, which appears as a mostly round shape with a pale glimmer.) It was inadvertently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781,{{efn|On March 18}} and added as the 92nd entry in his catalogue. William Herschel first resolved individual stars in 1783.
Visibility
It is one of the brighter of its sort in apparent magnitude in the northern hemisphere and in its absolute magnitude in the galaxy, but it is often overlooked by amateur astronomers due to angular proximity to bright cluster Messier 13, about 20% closer. Though when compared to M13, M92 is only slightly less bright, but about 1/3 less extended. It is visible to the naked eye under very good viewing conditions. With a small telescope, M92 can be seen as a nebulous smudge even in a severely light-polluted sky, and can be further resolved in darker conditions.
Characteristics
It is also one of the galaxy's oldest clusters. It is around {{Convert|16|e3ly|kpc|abbr=on|lk=on}} above/below the galactic plane and {{Convert|33|e3ly|kpc|abbr=on|lk=off}} from the Galactic Center. It is about 26,700 light-years away from the Solar System.The half-light radius, or radius containing the upper half of its light emission, is 1.09 arcminutes ({{prime}}), while the tidal radius, the broadest standard measure, is 15.17{{prime}}. It appears only slightly flattened: its minor axis is about 89% ± 3% of the major.
Characteristic of other globulars, it has little of the elements other than hydrogen and helium; astronomers term this low metallicity. Specifically, relative to the Sun, its iron abundance is [Fe/H] = –2.32 dex, which is 0.5% of 1.0, on this logarithmic scale, the solar abundance.Since 10−2.29 = 0.00513. This puts the estimated age range for the cluster at {{nowrap|11 ± 1.5 billion years}}.{{Cite journal|last1=Di Cecco|first1=A.|last2=Becucci|first2=R.|last3=Bono|first3=G.|last4=Monelli|first4=M.|last5=Stetson|first5=P. B.|last6=Degl'Innocenti|first6=S.|last7=Moroni|first7=P. G. Prada|last8=Nonino|first8=M.|last9=Weiss|first9=A.|last10=Buonanno|first10=R.|last11=Calamida|first11=A.|date=2010-06-27|title=On the absolute age of the Globular Cluster M92|journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific|volume=122|issue=895|pages=991–999|language=en|doi=10.1086/656017|arxiv=1006.5217|bibcode=2010PASP..122..991D |doi-access=free}}
Its true diameter is 108 ly, and may have a mass corresponding to 330,000 suns.{{Cite web |title=Messier Object 92 |url=https://www.messier.seds.org/m/m092.html |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=www.messier.seds.org}}
The cluster is not yet in, nor guaranteed to undergo, core collapse and the core radius figures as about 2 arcseconds ({{pprime}}). It is an Oosterhoff type II (OoII) globular cluster, which means it belongs to the group of metal-poor clusters with longer period RR Lyrae variable stars. The 1997 Catalogue of Variable Stars in Globular Clusters listed 28 candidate variable stars in the cluster, although only 20 have been confirmed. As of 2001, there are 17 known RR Lyrae variables in Messier 92. 10 X-ray sources have been detected within the 1.02 arcminute half-mass radius of the cluster, of which half are candidate cataclysmic variable stars.{{Cite journal |last1=Ferraro |first1=F. R. |last2=Paltrinieri |first2=B. |last3=Fusi Pecci |first3=F. |last4=Rood |first4=R. T. |last5=Dorman |first5=B. |date=1998-01-01 |title=Faint UV Objects in the Core of Ggcs: a New Subclass of Cvs? |journal=Ultraviolet Astrophysics Beyond the IUE Final Archive |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998ESASP.413..561F |volume=413 |pages=561|bibcode=1998ESASP.413..561F}}
M92 is approaching us at 112 km/sec. Its coordinates indicate that the Earth's North Celestial Pole periodically passes less than one degree of this cluster during the precession of Earth's axis. Thus, M92 was a "Polarissima Borealis", or "North Cluster", about 12,000 years ago (10,000 BC), and it will again in about 14,000 years (16,000 AD).{{-}}
The multiple stellar populations in this cluster, revealing that it hosts at least two stellar generations of stars named 1G and 2G, as well as two distinct groups of 2G stars (2GA and 2GB).{{cite news |last1=World |first1=FTT |title=Astronomers discover new insights into multiple stellar populations in Messier 92 using James Webb |url=https://www.followthistrendingworld.com/post/astronomers-discover-new-insights-into-multiple-stellar-populations-in-messier-92-using-james-webb}} The helium abundances of 2GA and 2GB stars have higher mass fractions than that of the 1G stars by 0.01 and 0.04, respectively.
Gallery
M92 arp 750pix.jpg|Messier 92 - wide field view from the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
M92map.png|Map showing how Messier 92 figures in the two-dimensional sky, in the east of Hercules. Maps set by convention against a southern horizon, such that east is left.
Messier92 - SDSS DR14 (panorama).jpg|Messier 92 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Messier 92 Hubble WikiSky.jpg|Messier 92 by HST; 3.5{{prime}} view
Globular Cluster M92 (NIRCam Image).png|Messier 92 captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument
See also
References and footnotes
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite simbad | title=M 92 | access-date=2006-11-17}}
{{citation | first1=Robert A. | last1=Garfinkle | title=Star-Hopping: Your Visa to Viewing the Universe | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1997 | isbn=978-0521598897 | page=131 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=40JzBYGREL0C&pg=PA131}}
{{citation | last1=Forbes | first1=Duncan A. | last2=Bridges | first2=Terry | title=Accreted versus in situ Milky Way globular clusters | journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | volume=404 | issue=3 | pages=1203–1214 |date=May 2010 | doi=10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16373.x | doi-access=free | bibcode=2010MNRAS.404.1203F | postscript=. |arxiv = 1001.4289 | s2cid=51825384}}
}}
{{notelist}}
External links
{{commons category|Messier 92}}
- {{WikiSky}}
- [http://messier.seds.org/m/m092.html Messier 92 @ SEDS Messier pages]
- [http://gclusters.altervista.org/cluster_4.php?ggc=M+92 Messier 92, Galactic Globular Clusters Database page]
- {{cite web|last=Merrifield|first=Michael|title=M92 – Globular Cluster|url=http://www.deepskyvideos.com/videos/messier/M92_globular_cluster.html|work=Deep Sky Videos|publisher=Brady Haran|author2=Crowther, Paul}}
- {{APOD |date=4 February 2012|title=Comet Garradd and M92}}
{{Sky|17|17|07.27|+|43|08|11.5|26000}}
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{{Hercules (constellation)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Messier 92}}