By ESA/Hubble
September 11, 2022
Hubble Space Telescope of globular cluster Terzan 4. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, R. Cohen
A glittering plethora of stars in the globular cluster Terzan 4 fills this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are collections of stars bound together by their mutual gravitational tourist attraction, and can consist of countless individual stars. As this image shows, the heart of a globular cluster such as Terzan 4 is a largely packed, crowded field of stars– that makes for magnificent images!
The launch of Hubble in 1990 transformed the research study of globular clusters. The specific stars in these thick crowds are practically impossible to differentiate from one another with ground-based telescopes, however can be picked apart using area telescopes. Astronomers have taken benefit of Hubbles crystal-clear vision to study the stars making up globular clusters, along with how these systems change in time.
This particular observation comes from astronomers utilizing Hubble to check out Terzan 4 and other globular clusters to comprehend the shape, density, age, and structure of globular clusters close to the center of the Milky Way. Unlike globular clusters in other places in the sky, these globular clusters have averted detailed observation because of the clouds of gas and dust swirling around the stellar core. These clouds blot out starlight in a process that astronomers refer to as termination, and make complex astronomical observations.
Astronomers made the most of the sensitivity of 2 of Hubbles instruments– the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3– to overcome the impact of termination on Terzan 4. By integrating Hubble images with sophisticated data processing, astronomers were able to figure out the ages of galactic globular clusters to within a billion years– a relatively precise measurement in astronomical terms!