By ESA/Hubble
May 22, 2022
Hubble Space Telescope image of globular cluster Liller 1. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, F. Ferraro
The suppressed red tones of the globular cluster Liller 1 are partially obscured in this view by a dense scattering of piercingly blue stars. It is thanks to Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that we are able to see Liller 1 so clearly in this image, since the WFC3 is delicate to wavelengths of light that the human eye can not see.
Liller 1 is simply 30,000 light-years from Earth– making it a reasonably close next-door neighbor in huge terms– however it lies within the Milky Ways bulge, the dirty and thick region at our galaxys. Since of that, Liller 1 is heavily obscured from view by interstellar dust, which scatters visible light (particularly blue light) very effectively.
Liller 1 is an especially interesting globular cluster, because unlike most of its kind, it contains a mix of extremely old and extremely young stars. Liller1 instead includes at least 2 distinct outstanding populations with extremely different ages: the oldest one is 12 billion years old and the youngest part is simply 1-2 billion years old.
