Globular Cluster M5
			
		
		
			Credit:
		
		
			The globular cluster 
M5, pictured above, contains 
roughly 100,000 stars.
These stars formed together and are gravitationally bound.  Stars orbit the
center of the cluster, and the cluster orbits the center of our Galaxy. So
far, about 160 
globular clusters 
are known to exist in a roughly spherical halo around the 
Galactic center. 
Globular clusters 
do not appear spherically distributed as viewed from the Earth, and this
fact was a key point in the determination that our 
Sun is 
not at the center of our
Galaxy. Globular clusters are very old. There is a straightforward 
method
of determining their age, and this provides a very interesting lower limit
on the age of our universe of about 14 billion years.