Deep within the Milky Way, clusters like Terzan 12 are often obscured by clouds of gas and dust. These clouds can obscure or alter the starlight that we see from these clusters.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a vibrant picture of the globular star cluster Terzan 12, illustrating how area dust can affect starlight.
This vibrant image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 is an amazing example of how dust in area affects starlight coming from background things.
A globular star cluster is a combination of stars, organized in a spheroidal shape. Stars in globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards the center. The Milky Way has about 150 ancient globular clusters at its outskirts. These clusters orbit around the stellar center, but far above and listed below the pancake-flat airplane of our galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive.
Dusts Play on Starlight.
The place of this globular cluster, deep in the Milky Way in the constellation Sagittarius, means that it is shrouded in gas and dust which take in and alter the starlight emanating from Terzan 12. The cluster has to do with 15,000 light-years from Earth. This place leaves a lot of space for stepping in interstellar dust particles in between us and the cluster to scatter blue light, causing just the redder wavelengths to come through to Earth. The interstellar dust clouds are mottled so that different parts of the cluster appearance redder than other parts along our line of sight.
The brightest red stars in the image are puffed up, aging giants, often times bigger than our Sun. They lie between Earth and the cluster. Just a few might actually be members of the cluster. The really brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which only contains aging stars.
The globular cluster is in the image center.Bottom Right: A new Hubble Space Telescope image of the dense cluster Terzan 12. The very brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which just consists of aging stars. The cluster is about 15,000 light-years from Earth.Credit: NASA, ESA, Stéphane Guisard, ESO, Digitized Sky Survey, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (Rutgers University), Joseph DePasquale (STScI).
The Legacy of Terzan and Hubbles Contribution.
Terzan 12 is one of 11 globular clusters found by the Turkish-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan approximately a half-century ago. With its sharp vision, Hubble has actually changed the research study of globular clusters ever given that its launch in 1990. Hubble observations have clarified the relation in between age and composition in the Milky Way galaxys innermost globular clusters.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of worldwide cooperation between NASA and ESA. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations.
A globular star cluster is a collection of stars, set up in a spheroidal shape. Stars in globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a greater concentration of stars towards the. The extremely brightest hot, blue stars are likewise along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which just consists of aging stars.
The globular cluster is in the image center.Bottom Right: A new Hubble Space Telescope image of the thick cluster Terzan 12. The extremely brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which just consists of aging stars.