May 13, 2024

The Milky Way’s Disco Ball: Hubble Captures Glittering Globular Cluster in Sagittarius

This striking image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the globular cluster NGC 6652, situated within our Milky Way galaxy. A product of the work of two unique teams of astronomers, this image integrates data from 2 Hubble instruments to survey globular clusters and to evaluate their chemical makeup. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto
In a spectacular image from the Hubble Space Telescope, the globular cluster NGC 6652 twinkles with the light of numerous stars.
The glittering, flashy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The core of the cluster is saturated with the pale blue light of numerous stars, and a handful of especially intense foreground stars are decorated with crisscrossing diffraction spikes. NGC 6652 depends on our own Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius, simply under 30,000 light-years from Earth and a simple 6,500 light-years from the Galactic center.
Globular Clusters Explained
Globular clusters are steady, securely gravitationally bound clusters containing anywhere between tens of thousands and millions of stars. The intense gravitational destination between the carefully jam-packed stars in globular clusters is what offers these star-studded objects their routine, round shape.

Information Collection and Observing Programs
This image combines information from 2 of Hubbles third-generation instruments; the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). This image not only gain from two instruments however likewise depends on two separate observing programs from 2 distinct groups of astronomers. The very first team started a mission to survey globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy in the hope of clarifying topics ranging from the ages of these challenge the gravitational capacity of the galaxy as a whole.
Analyzing Chemical Proportions
The junior varsity of astronomers utilized a trio of exquisitely delicate filters in Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 to disentangle the proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in globular clusters such as NGC 6652.

A product of the work of two distinct teams of astronomers, this image combines data from 2 Hubble instruments to survey globular clusters and to examine their chemical makeup. The glittering, flashy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The first group embarked on an objective to study globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy in the hope of shedding light on topics ranging from the ages of these things to the gravitational potential of the galaxy as a whole.

By ESA/Hubble
July 30, 2023