7. Clusters of Globular
Found Year: 166 5
Identifying It: Abraham Ihle
Where: The Milky Way and Other Galaxies
Abraham Ihle, a German amateur astronomer, discovered the first globular cluster ever found. Numerous more of these clusters have been discovered in the Milky Way and other galaxies since that initial discovery in 1665.
Clusters of Globular ©NASA/Wikimedia
These star clusters are composed of spherical groups of stars connected by gravity. They may consist of a few thousand stars or millions. The Milky Way currently contains approximately 150 globular clusters—and those are only the ones that have been identified. Despite their abundance, nothing is currently known about these clusters’ histories or implications for the evolution of the galaxy.
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