Pleiades

In the vast expanse of the cosmos, the Milky Way Galaxy is our home.

You’ve no doubt seen images of the Milky Way and similar galaxies elsewhere online. It’s a large, spiral galaxy, one of the most spectacular galactic shapes. That spiral shape is fairly iconic–and for years, that’s as far as I thought galaxy classification went.

Turns out, galaxies are way more diverse than just the main three classifications I knew about (spirals, ellipticals, and irregulars). The Milky Way is fully classified as an SBbc: a barred spiral galaxy with a medium-sized nucleus.

Spirals are also described as “grand design” (two distinct spiral arms) or “flocculent” (a sort of fluffy appearance); the Milky Way is somewhere in the middle.

But even those classifications and descriptions don’t fully describe our galaxy.

So what exactly is the structure of the galaxy we call home?

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Meet M13, one of my favorite globular star clusters.

M13, also known as Messier 13 or the Hercules Cluster, is found—surprise surprise—in the constellation Hercules in the northern hemisphere.

The really cool thing about star clusters is that they look just as spectacular through a telescope as they do in a good image—that is, on a clear, dark night with good seeing conditions.

So…why am I showing you a picture of a star cluster? (Besides the fact that they’re gorgeous?)

Well…after all the talk I’ve done of stellar evolution, I know what you’re going to ask me next…how the heck do we know all this?

That’s a very good question—and one that star clusters can answer.

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