Gemini Observatory reveals primordial stellar stream is a shredded star cluster

A team of astronomers discovered an unusual stellar stream orbiting the Milky Way. A stellar stream is a cluster of stars that have been torn and stretched into streams that stretch along their original orbit.

Astronomers find ruins of ancient star cluster at the edge of the galaxy. Photo: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine Acknowledgment: M. Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab)

The stellar stream, named C-19, is expansive but not visible to the naked eye. The stellar stream's existence is evidence that globular clusters (dense groups of old stars) and other entities in the early Milky Way were able to form in extremely low-metal environments.

The discovery offers new insight into the formation of stars, star clusters, and galaxies in the early universe.

Using a fiberoptic link between the GRACES spectrograph installed at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the mirrors of the Gemini North telescope -- part of the Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF's NOIRLab -- the team discovered that C-19 is actually remnants of an ancient globular cluster.

The astronomers found that C-19 has a lower proportion of heavy elements than other known galactic stellar systems.

The data indicate that the stars in the stream were once part of a star cluster and formed in the early days of the Milky Way.

The revelations could provide more information about the formation of the first stars and star clusters shortly after the Big Bang. (National Science Foundation)

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