Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae from SALT

Stars come in bunches. Of the over 200 globular star clusters that orbit the center of our Milky Way Galaxy , 47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster, behind Omega Centauri . Known to some affectionately as 47 Tuc or NGC 104, it is only visible from Earth's Southern Hemisphere . It was therefore a fitting target for first light observations of the gigantic new 10-meter diameter Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) this past week. The resulting image is shown above . Light takes about 20,000 years to reach us from 47 Tuc which can be seen near the Small Magellanic Cloud toward the constellation of Tucana . The dynamics of stars near the center of 47 Tuc are not well understood, particularly why there are so few binary systems there.