A dense spherical cluster of stars. The
stars merge into a bright core in the centre, and spread out to the
edges gradually, giving way to an empty, dark background. Most of the
stars are small points of light. A few stars with cross-shaped
diffraction spikes appear larger, and stand out in front. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto
The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded
image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The core of the cluster
is suffused with the pale blue light of countless stars, and a handful
of particularly bright foreground stars are adorned with criss-crossing
diffraction spikes. NGC 6652 lies in our own Milky Way galaxy in the
constellation Sagittarius, just under 30 000 light-years from Earth and
only 6500 light-years from the Galactic centre.
Globular clusters are stable, tightly gravitationally bound clusters containing anywhere between tens of thousands and millions of stars. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars in globular clusters is what gives these star-studded objects their regular, spherical shape.
This image combines data from two of Hubble’s third-generation instruments; the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. As well as two instruments, this image draws on two different observing programmes from two different teams of astronomers. The first team set out to survey globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy in the hope of shedding light on topics ranging from the ages of these objects to the gravitational potential of the galaxy as a whole. The second team of astronomers used a trio of exquisitely sensitive filters in Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to disentangle the proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in globular clusters such as NGC 6652.
Globular clusters are stable, tightly gravitationally bound clusters containing anywhere between tens of thousands and millions of stars. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars in globular clusters is what gives these star-studded objects their regular, spherical shape.
This image combines data from two of Hubble’s third-generation instruments; the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. As well as two instruments, this image draws on two different observing programmes from two different teams of astronomers. The first team set out to survey globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy in the hope of shedding light on topics ranging from the ages of these objects to the gravitational potential of the galaxy as a whole. The second team of astronomers used a trio of exquisitely sensitive filters in Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to disentangle the proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in globular clusters such as NGC 6652.
Source: ESA/Hubble/potw
