Hubble Captures a Glittering Hoard in an Astronomical Treasure Trove

The sparkling globular cluster NGC 6569 in the constellation Sagittarius is captured in this image from the NASAEstablished in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is "To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity." Its core values are "safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion."” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>NASA/ESA Hubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as Hubble or HST) is one of NASA's Great Observatories and was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990. It is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes in use and features a 2.4-meter mirror and four main instruments that observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It was named after astronomer Edwin Hubble.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble explored the heart of this cluster with both its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, revealing a glittering hoard of stars in this astronomical treasure trove.

Globular clusters — stable, tightly bound clusters that contain tens of thousands to millions of stars — are associated with all types of galaxies. Because of the intense gravitational attraction of these closely packed clusters of stars, globular clusters have a regular spherical shape with a densely populated center — as can be seen in the heart of this star-studded image.

This Hubble observation comes from an investigation of globular clusters which lie close to the center of the Milky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth, and is named for its appearance from Earth. It is a barred spiral galaxy that contains an estimated 100-400 billion stars and has a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Milky Way. These objects have been avoided in previous surveys, as the dust spread throughout the center of our galaxy blocks light from these globular clusters and alters the colors of the stars residing in them. The last factor is particularly important for astronomers studying stellar evolution, as the colors of stars can give astronomers insights into their ages, compositions, and temperatures.

The astronomers who proposed these observations combined data from Hubble with data from astronomical archives, allowing them to measure the ages of globular clusters including NGC 6569. Their research also provided insights into the structure and density of globular clusters towards the center of the Milky Way.