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The Hubble Space Telescope still treats us for a memorable moment of our galactic neighborhood. This time, Hubble captured a huge globular cluster known as NGC 6139 – which houses some of the oldest stars of the Milky Way
Released on June 29 by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Hubble's image reveals NGC 6139 – a "rich and dense star-grip" – as seen around the center direction of our galaxy, in the Scorpius constellation (Scorpion).
According to ESA, "this constellation is a mine of fascinating astronomical objects". many sequences of breathtaking telescopes. For example, almost ten years ago, Hubble scanned the Scorpius constellation and took an astonishing picture of the butterfly nebula, note Hubblesite.com .
This last image represents only one of many globular clusters by Hubble during his 30 years of sky mapping. These dazzling entities are defined as spherical collections of stars and orbit in the heart of a galaxy similar to a satellite.
Globular clusters – named after "globulus", the Latin word for "sphere" – are thought to exist in all galaxies of the world. varied numbers, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand in the case of giant elliptical galaxies.
The Milky Way has at least 150 globular clusters, reports Sci News each of them closely related by gravity and carrying a high density of stars, especially towards their center [19659008] Globular cluster NGC 6139 in the Milky Way ” width=”670″ height=”340″ srcset=”https://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Hubble-globular-cluster-NGC-6139-670×340.jpg 670w, https://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Hubble-globular-cluster-NGC-6139-768×390.jpg 768w, https://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Hubble-globular-cluster-NGC-6139-138×70.jpg 138w, https://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Hubble-globular-cluster-NGC-6139.jpg 800w” sizes=”(max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px”/>
Hubble and NASA
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ESA
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Filled with hundreds of thousands of stars, these globular clusters were "formed very early in the history of the galaxy", although their exact role in the evolution of the Milky Way remains uncertain.
Of all the globular clusters surrounding our core galaxy, NGC 6139 is remarkably interesting. Discovered in 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop, this globular cluster, located about 35 000 light-years away, is described by ESA as "an aging beauty".
The space agency officials explain why. cluster, named NGC 6139, is home to an aging population of stars. Most of the globular clusters in orbit around the Milky Way are more than 10 billion years old; therefore, they contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. "
The main difference between globular clusters and open star clusters, such as the famous Pleiades, is that they are much older and denser than the latter, residing in the halo of the galaxy – as opposed to the galactic disk, where open star clusters are generally found.
The newly released image was taken by Hubble's Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument and is actually a composite of separate exposures were initially monochromatic.As Sci News points out the resulting photo owes its beautiful colors to the different hues assigned to each of the filters that were used to sample different lengths
