![[Palomar 1 image, INT]](Pics/pal01int.jpg)
The image in this page was obtained with the 100-inch (2.54-meter) Isaac Newton Telescope. Shown is the central 4.3x4.3', photographed with I filter and an exposure time of 600 sec.
Recently, a team of astronomers lead by Alfred Rosenberg of Padova, Italy has closer investigated globular cluster Palomar 1. First, they confirm its nature as a globular by finding that its properties and location in the outer halo, about 55,000 light-years from the Galaxy's center, contradict the possibility of a very old open cluster. They find that Palomar 1 is probably younger than most globulars, and could have been created in a different formation process. While most globulars are thought to have coalesced at the same time as the Milky Way Galaxy itself, the younger ones, on the other hand, may have come in three other ways: as gas clouds that survived in the halo after the Milky Way's formation, later to form stars; as captured intergalactic star groups; or as cannibalised dwarf galaxies (Rosenberg et.al. 1996, 1997, 1998 a, and 1998 b).
