Discovery of the Farthest Star Cluster in the Milky Way Galaxy

Astronomers have discovered the farthest cluster of stars from Earth observed so far within the boundaries of the Milky Way galaxy, located in the star halo at its outer limits, nearly halfway to a neighboring galaxy. The researchers stated that these stars, numbering 208, inhabit the farthest regions of the outer halo, which consists of a spherical cloud of stars dominated by mysterious invisible matter known as dark matter, which has only been identified through its gravitational effects. The farthest of these stars is located 1.08 million light-years from Earth. One light-year is the distance that light travels in one complete year, equivalent to 9.5 trillion kilometers. These stars were observed using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and belong to a category of stars called RR Lyrae, known for their relatively low mass and the scarcity of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The mass of the farthest star in this group is approximately 70 percent of the mass of the Sun.