Relative to the size of our solar system, how close together are stars in globular clusters?

The typical density of stars in the core of a globular cluster can be 100 stars or more per cubic light year. This means that the typical distance between stars is about 1 light year/ 100^(1/3) = 1/5 of a light year or about 2 light months. The solar system is about 0.17 light months across, so that means that stars will be about as far apart as 1/0.17 = 6 solar system diameters. The night sky would have thousands of stars brighter than Venus, with possibly a few too bright to look at without severe retinal damage. The above photo by the Hubble Space Telescope is of the star cluster NGC 1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is not a globular-type system, but it is plenty dense enough!


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald

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