Stars sparkle in various colors in this week's Hubble image Digital Trends Skip to main content Trending: Wordle Today October 24 Dell XPS 15 vs. Razer Blade 15 Best Dolby Atmos Soundbars iPhone 14 Plus Review Halo Rise vs. Nest Hub 2nd Gen HP Envy x360 13 (2022) Review Best Chromebook Printers Home SpaceNews

Stars sparkle in various colors in this week’ s Hubble image

By Georgina Torbet September 4, 2022 Share Close out your week with a soothing view of the wonders of space, as provided by the Hubble Space Telescope. This week’s image from Hubble shows an enormous structure of stars called a globular cluster, located 23,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. A globular cluster is a group of thousands or even millions of stars that are held together by gravity. This group, named NGC 6558, is located close to the center of the Milky Way. Previous Hubble images also show similar globular clusters near the heart of our galaxy, which are being investigated as part of a Hubble project. This glittering gathering of stars is the globular cluster NGC 6558, and it was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. NGC 6558 is closer to the center of the Milky Way than Earth is, and lies about 23,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. “Globular clusters are interesting natural laboratories where astronomers can test their theories,” Hubble scientists write. “Because the stars in a globular cluster formed at approximately the same time with similar initial compositions, they provide unique insights into how different stars evolve under similar conditions. This image comes from a set of observations investigating globular clusters in the inner Milky Way. Astronomers were interested in studying these globular clusters to gain greater insight into how they form and evolve.” As you can see in the image, stars come in a variety of colors, and this color can gives clues to their age. That’s because a star’s color is a function of how hot its surface is, and surface temperature is related to age. However, the mass of a star also plays a role, not to mention factors like the redshift observed in very distant stars or dust which can get in the way and affect the perceived color of a star. Generally speaking, blue stars are typically the youngest and hottest, while as stars age and use up their fuel they become cooler and redder.

Editors' Recommendations

How to watch this week’s solar eclipse in person or online Hubble captures a tempestuous pair of Herbig-Haro objects See how the night sky changes over a decade with this NASA time lapse Astronomers spot a monster black hole ‘practically in our backyard’ See SpaceX’s chopsticks in action stacking the Starship rocket Unusual puffy exoplanet has the density of marshmallow Crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid caused it to form twin tails Check out Webb telescope’s mind-blowing image of the Pillars of Creation D-RATS astronauts test lunar technology in the desert How to watch SpaceX and NASA launch Crew-5 mission today This Mars rover is looking for a new mission Snoopy is heading to space. NASA explains why Watch the highlights of SpaceX’s Crew-5 launch to space station How to watch SpaceX’s Crew-5 astronauts arrive at space station Look out, space billboards could be coming to a sky near you Watch four astronauts welcomed to the International Space Station See Jupiter’s icy moon Europa up close and personal in Juno image How to watch SpaceX’s delayed double satellite launch tonight