Web Cluster

The Web Cluster as seen in front of the Silky Way galaxy.

Location of the Web Cluster.

## Other

### Notable Members

Bernem (look below) ; Basakh - a neutron star, a relic from a now gone blue straggler star ; Achgleid - the black hole at the center of the cluster

### Important Planets

Bernem b - the only planet in the Web Cluster found orbiting a star (Bernem)

### Interesting characteristics

Possible core of a disrupted dwarf galaxy.

**The Web Cluster** is a globular cluster located in The Gap of The Silky Way. It is the second largest globular cluster of The Silky Way.

## Physical Characteristics

The Web Cluster contains over 500 thousand stars, but has a diameter of only 75 light years (radius equal to 37.5 light years). The stars in the Web Cluster are so crowded, that they are only 0.44 light years away from one another on average. The Web Cluster as a whole, has a metallicity of [Fe/H] = –1.38 dex.

The cluster is of class VIII of globular clusters, which means that its stars are "rather loosely concetrated towards the center". It also is about 6 billion years old.

### Stars

The Web Cluster, like all the other globular clusters, is full of old main sequence stars from the types G to K to M. Blue stragglers are also present in this globular.

An interesting object to mention is the neutron star **Basakh**: a pulsar which is a relic of a massive blue straggler that exploded in a supernova explosion millions of years ago.

### Brown Dwarfs

Brown dwarfs of all classes are present in the Web Cluster. From M to L to T to Y. Their population is significantly smaller than the stars' though. That's due to them being less likely to form and having a low mass, which often results in a more massive object capturing such brown dwarf and it being sent on a collision course with another object or being thrown away from the cluster completely.

### Planets

In the Web Cluster only 14 planets have been found so far, 2 of them being terrestrial and the rest jovian. Planets are very rare in globular clusters due to a similiar reason to the one described in the previous paragraph.

One planet being worthy of noting has to be **Bernem b**: a rocky planet orbiting the star **Bernem**. The thing that is special about it, is that it's a planet which isn't free-floating: a very rare occurance in globulars. It's orbit is unstable though and one stellar encounter could easily detach it. Bernem b is orbiting in retrograde, which is due to it not originally forming around Bernem, but being captured by it.

### Black Hole

At the center of the Web Cluster a supermassive black hole called **Achgleid** reigns. It has a mass of 100 thousand M⨀, which is 1/3 of the whole mass present in the Web Cluster.

## Origin

It is possible that in the past The Web Cluster was a core of a dwarf galaxy, which got disrupted by The Silky Way. Many factors indicate this. For example, Its star metallicities and stellar age ranges suggest that it did not all form at once. The presence of the supermassive black hole may also be a part of evidence for this origin hypothesis.

## Location and orbit

The Web Cluster orbits in the gap area of the Silky Way. It finishes one full orbit in about 1 million years. It orbits in a prograde orbit.