Unusual Flashes Toward Globular Cluster M22
What is causing the unusual flashes behind globular cluster M22?
This teeming ball of stars is the brightest
globular cluster
visible from Earth's northern hemisphere.
M22, shown in full in the inset, spans about 50
light-years and lies 8,500 light-years away toward the constellation of
Sagittarius.
M22's center was
recently imaged repeatedly by the high resolution
Hubble Space Telescope.
Behind M22 are many more stars near the
center of our Galaxy.
Unexpectedly, several stars
near the Galactic center
-- well behind
M22 -- appeared to nearly double in
brightness and return to normal within 20 hours.
One hypothesis posed to explain these quick brightness changes is the
gravitational lens effect
of large planets roaming freely in the cluster.
One problem with this is that no such
planetary population was previously known!
Future observations are planned to better
understand these mysterious flashes.