Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc
Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the southern sky. Also known as NGC 104 , it roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star clusters . The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri ) as seen from planet Earth, it lies about 13,000 light-years away and can be spotted naked-eye near the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of the Toucan . The dense cluster is made up of several million stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across. Red giant stars on the outskirts of the cluster are easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait . Globular cluster 47 Tuc is also home to exotic x-ray binary star systems.