A spherical collection of hundreds of thousands to millions of very old stars, tightly bound by gravity and orbiting in the galactic halo. These ancient stellar cities contain some of the oldest stars in the universe, typically 10-13 billion years old.
From Latin 'globulus' meaning small sphere, describing their distinctive round appearance. The term was coined by William Herschel in the late 18th century when he observed these objects' characteristic spherical shape through his telescopes.
Globular clusters are like cosmic time capsules containing the universe's senior citizens! These stellar retirement communities hold clues to the early universe and help astronomers measure the minimum age of the cosmos itself.
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