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Using the advanced adaptive optics system GeMS on the Gemini South Telescope, astronomers have imaged a beautiful stellar jewel box – a tightly packed cluster of stars that is one of the few places in our galaxy where astronomers think stars can actually collide. The cluster of stars, known as Liller 1, is a difficult target to study due to its distance and also because it is located close to the center of the Milky Way (about 3,200 light-years away from it), where the obscuration by dust is very high.
The unprecedented, ultra-sharp view of the cluster reveals a vast city of stars estimated by the team to contain a total mass of at least 1.5 million suns, very similar to the most massive globular clusters in our galaxy: Omega Centauri and Terzan 5.Image credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA
