NGC 6025 facts for kids
NGC 6025 is a group of stars known as an open cluster. You can find it in the Triangulum Australe constellation, which is also called the Southern Triangle. This amazing cluster is very far away from Earth, about 2,700 light-years from us!
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What is an Open Cluster?
An open cluster is like a cosmic family of stars. These stars were all born around the same time from the same giant cloud of gas and dust. They are loosely held together by gravity.
How Open Clusters Form
Stars in an open cluster are usually quite young. They form when a large cloud of gas and dust collapses. Gravity pulls the material together, and new stars light up.
Where to Find Them
Open clusters are often found in the flat, spiral arms of galaxies, like our own Milky Way. They are different from globular clusters, which are much older and packed tightly with millions of stars.
Triangulum Australe Constellation
NGC 6025 is located in the Triangulum Australe constellation. This constellation is a small, triangle-shaped group of stars. It is only visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
Naming the Constellation
"Triangulum Australe" means "the Southern Triangle" in Latin. It was first mapped by Dutch explorers in the late 1500s.
Measuring Cosmic Distances
When we say NGC 6025 is 2,700 light-years away, what does that mean? A light-year is a way to measure huge distances in space. It is the distance light travels in one Earth year.
How Far is a Light-Year?
Light travels incredibly fast, about 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second. So, one light-year is about 9.46 trillion kilometers (5.88 trillion miles)! This helps us understand just how vast space is.
Images for kids
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Map showing location of NGC 6025
