Globular Star Cluster Exploration

This scientific visualization portrays the activities within a small globular star cluster over a period of about three hundred thousand years. The images have been callibrated to approximate what the human eye could see on a trip across space. The star cluster data comes from a supercomputer simulation that accurately tracks the motions and interactions of some ten thousand stars. The combined motions of the stars create a frenetic visual effect similar to a swarm of insects.

The camera starts with a flight to the globular cluster, and then it enters a circular orbit at a distance of about one-half of a light-year from the center of the cluster. Eventually the orbit spirals in and through the cluster to emerge out the other side. Time passes at about 10 thousand years a second, and the camera is moving at roughly a million times the speed of light.