Arches Cluster

The Arches Star Cluster is the densest known star clusters in the Milky Way and is located about 100 light -years from the center of our galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius, and thus of the supermassive black hole.

Due to the extremely strong optical extinction by dust in this region of star clusters in the visual area in and only in the X-ray, infrared and radio frequency range is recognizable. The cluster itself is less than 2.5 million years old. His most massive stars have about 120 times the mass of the sun, the smallest are about 0.08 solar masses difficult. The radius of the star cluster is about 1.5 light-years in which about 15,000 young, very hot stars are included. Many of them are much larger and more massive than our sun and live due to their extreme brightness and energy turnover of its hydrogen supply only a few million years. A consequence of this is the high proportion of heavy elements in the heap, which has been generated by previous generations of stars. The cluster also contains hot gas, which flows outward and is produced by collision between the massive and very fast solar wind the stars.