NGC 6522 is a

globular cluster A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of membe ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Sagittarius. It is

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

8.3, and diameter 16.4 arc minutes, and class VI with stars 16th magnitude and dimmer. It was discovered by William Herschel on June 24, 1784. It is centered in a region of the sky known as

Baade's Window Baade's Window is an area of the sky with relatively low amounts of cosmic dust, interstellar dust along the line of sight from Earth. This area is considered an observational "window" as the normally obscured Galactic Center of the Milky Way is ...

. NGC 6522 is possibly the oldest star cluster in the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

, with an age of more than 12 billion years."The universe's first stars were whirling dervishes"
''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'' by David Shiga, 30 April 2011, p. 20
"Imprints of fast-rotating massive stars in the Galactic Bulge"
by Cristina Chiappini ''et al.'', ''Nature'' 472, pp. 454–457 (28 April 2011).

Gallery

N6522 32ins.jpg, The globular clusters NGC 6528 (lower left) is close to NGC 6522 (upper right) HST SWEEPS Galaxy Location-2006.jpg, The cluster is located in

, a region of night sky that is not clouded by dust from the

References

External links

*
NGC6522, Galactic Globular Clusters Database page
Globular clusters Sagittarius (constellation)

6522 The 6522 Versatile Interface Adapter (VIA) is an integrated circuit that was designed and manufactured by MOS Technology as an I/O port controller for the 6502 family of microprocessors. It provides two bidirectional 8-bit parallel I/O ports, t ...

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