Hubble Space Telescope Captures a Gorgeous Sprinkling of Stars

The open star cluster NGC 1755 resembles a pinch of salt strewn on a jet-black tablecloth 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. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.””>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.”>Hubble Space Telescope. This collection of stars resides in one 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.”>Milky Way’s near neighbors — the Large Magellanic Cloud — and measures 120 light-years from side to side. Despite this impressive breadth, NGC 1755 is a member of the smaller class of star clusters. Star clusters are gravitationally bound collections of stars, and come in two main varieties — smaller open clusters like NGC 1755, which are hosts to younger stars, and gargantuan globular clusters, which can contain millions of older stars.

Hubble gazed into the heart of NGC 1755 in order to better understand how different populations of stars can co-exist in a single cluster. A population of stars is a group of stars with similar properties such as age or chemical composition, and these populations provide astronomers with valuable insights into the births, lives, and deaths of stars. Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds are particularly useful natural laboratories thanks to the Clouds’ proximity to the Milky Way. Hubble’s eagle-eyed vision was a vital asset when observing NGC 1755 — with so many stars packed into a small area of sky, Hubble’s high-resolution Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 allowed individual stars in the cluster to be distinguished.