Statistical analysis of the motion of globular clusters in the galaxy

The laws of motion of globular stellar clusters, capable of answering many interesting questions about their evolution and the overall structure of the Galaxy, are investigated. Solving the problem of the orbits of these objects requires knowledge of the initial conditions of their motion and assigning an expression for the gravitational potential of the Galaxy’s regular field. The situation here is complicated, in general by the fact that, despite some progress in determining the proper motions of globular clusters, only their radial velocities can be estimated from observations. One must therefore apply statistical methods of analysis of the possible shapes of the Galactic orbits of these formations. In the present work, on the basis of new, relatively rich observational material, we have carried out statistical investigations of the possible shapes of orbits for about 100 globular clusters and studied the influence of a change in the Galaxy’s gravitational potential on the results of the investigations.