Giant globular cluster Omega Centauri stars' projected migration over the next 10,000 years. Movie

The multicolor snapshot, at top, taken with Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, captures the central region of the giant globular cluster Omega Centauri.
All the stars in the image are moving in random directions, like a swarm of bees. Astronomers used Hubble's exquisite resolving power to measure positions for stars in 2002 and 2006. From these measurements, they can predict the stars' future movement.
The bottom illustration charts the future positions of the stars highlighted by the white box in the top image. Each streak represents the motion of the star over the next 600 years.
The motion between dots corresponds to 30 years.

This movie sequence begins with a ground-based image of the giant globular star cluster Omega Centauri and zooms very tightly in to a Hubble Space Telescope image of the central region of the cluster. In a simulation based on Hubble data, the stars appear to be moving in random directions, like a swarm of bees. Astronomers used Hubble's exquisite resolving power to measure positions for stars in 2002 and 2006. From these measurements, they can predict the stars' future movement, shown here for the next 10,000 years.

Pay especially attention to the last 10 seconds of this video as it really shows stars moving like a swarm of bees.
I wonder if they can also predict stars collision and supernovae as well!?

Read the full paper at physorg.com

Thats amazing. The last few seconds of the video make it look like the stars are molecules moving about. Everything in nature, big and small, seems so similar.

reply to post by iamhobo


Yes it does. Almost as though it were....."designed" that way.

awesome, looks like pure chaos out there

Originally posted by elevenaugust

I wonder if they can also predict stars collision and supernovae as well!?

I cant see why not. Maybe not with pinpoint accuracy but surely they could come up with a list of potential collisions and point right at it.

Very cool video. To see everything large on a large scale so far away behave in the same way the small scale does really creates a sense of "home". It familiar and comforting. Everything is going to be alright. \

Thanks OP!

reply to post by elevenaugust


Hubble, one of the best inventions...ever. This is the kind of stuff I don't mind government spending all kinds of money on.

Oh how BEAUTIFUL.......

Thanks for sharing.