Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
Located approximately 22 000 light-years away in the
constellation of Musca (The Fly), this tightly packed collection of
stars — known as a globular cluster — goes by the name of NGC 4833. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the dazzling stellar group in all its glory.
NGC 4833 is one of the over 150 globular clusters
known to reside within the Milky Way. These objects are thought to
contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. Studying these ancient
cosmic clusters can help astronomers to unravel how a galaxy formed and
evolved, and give an idea of the galaxy’s age.
Globular clusters
are responsible for some of the most striking sights in the cosmos, with
hundreds of thousands of stars congregating in the same region of
space. Hubble has observed many of these clusters during its time in orbit around our planet, each as breathtaking as the last.
Source: ESA/Hubble - Space Telescope
