Hubble takes a picture of thousands of stars close to each other

by time news

Hubble researchers share an image collected by a 30-year-old telescope that shows this week a dazzling globular cluster named NCG 6540.

A globular cluster is a group of tens of thousands or even millions of stars, which are closely grouped together and held in mass by their common gravity.

This special spherical array was photographed using two Hubble instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, Digitartlends reported.

This group is located about 17,000 light-years away and is located in the constellation Sagittarius.

It was first observed in 1784 by William Herschel, who originally classified it as a “faint nebula”, but its true nature as a globular cluster was noted when Celtic astronomer Stanislav Georg Djiorovsky observed it in 1986.

Studying these massive clusters of stars can help astronomers learn more about the evolution of stars and galaxies, and this image was collected as part of a study of globular clusters within the Milky Way.

As the Hubble scientists explained, “Hubble peered into the core of NGC 6540 to help astronomers measure the ages, shapes, and structures of globular clusters toward the center of the Milky Way.

The gas and dust that blankets the center of our galaxy blocks some of the light from these clusters, and in addition to subtly changing the colors of their stars, globular clusters contain insights into the Milky Way’s earliest history, so studying them can help astronomers understand how our galaxy evolved. “

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