NGC 5466 by Hubble Space Telescope; 3.5′ view. Image credit: NASA/STScI/WikiSky
We may think that globular clusters are huge spheres of simply static stars that have been in place since our galaxy formed, but the truth is very different.
NGC 5466, which is in the constellation of the Boyero, relatively poor, as we have already discovered, in flashy deep sky objects. However, this globular cluster is a pleasant surprise in a sky too dark, breaking the monotony and showing us an interesting story. It is one of those globular clusters especially ancient, whose origin goes back to the same as our galaxy, when the universe was young, as it can be verified of the low metallicity of its stars. It is very dimly lit, with about 50,000 scattered stars in a diameter of 140 light years, which gives it a 12th degree Shapley-Sawyer classification, the lowest density in which a globular cluster can be classified. But the most interesting thing about this globular cluster is not the number of stars.
NGC 5466 is actually the remnant of a spheroidal dwarf, which remains of the nucleus of a galaxy that long ago began to orbit the Milky Way. Its low density of stars caused that, with each step by the galactic plane, undergo a gravitational pull and lose with it a significant percentage of its components. NGC 5466 is moving like the drops of water left in the air when a dolphin jumps out of the water.
NGC 5466 imaged with a 32-inch telescope. Image source: [2]