It was through the study of globular clusters that the sun's position in the Milky Way galaxy is know. Until the 1930s, it was thought that the sun was near the middle of the galaxy because the distribution of stars in the observable Milky War appeared uniform. However, the distribution of globular clusters was strongly asymmetric. In looking at the distances to the clusters, it became clear that the observable Milky Way was only a small part of the total galaxy, most of which was obscured by gas and dust. Because globular clusters lie outside the plane of the Milky Way, they are not blocked by the gas and dust of the galactic disk. |
It was through the study of globular clusters that the sun's position in the Milky Way galaxy is know. Until the 1930s, it was thought that the sun was near the middle of the galaxy because the distribution of stars in the observable Milky War appeared uniform. However, the distribution of globular clusters was strongly asymmetric. In looking at the distances to the clusters, it became clear that the observable Milky Way was only a small part of the total galaxy, most of which was obscured by gas and dust. Because globular clusters lie outside the plane of the Milky Way, they are not blocked by the gas and dust of the galactic disk.
Globulars are very old, they formed along with the host galaxy.