Globular Clusters

Globular clusters are ancient, massive and extremely dense collections of stars, typically arranged in a nearly spherical structure with a strongly concentrated core. They can contain hundreds of thousands, and sometimes more than a million stars, packed into a region only a few hundred light-years across. Most are around 10–13 billion years old, making them some of the oldest surviving stellar systems in the Milky Way. Unlike open clusters, they are predominantly found in the galactic halo, orbiting far above and below the disk of our Galaxy.