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This could be the largest retirement home in the galaxy.
Hubble revealed a stunning picture of a huge collection of aging stars.
Known as NGC 6139, Hundreds of Thousands of Stars
The phenomenon is known as a massive globular cluster, and is a gravitational collection of stars that gravitates around the Milky Way .
They usually contain hundreds of thousands of stars that are thought to form roughly at the same time.
Globular clusters are denser and more spherical than open star clusters like the famous Pleiades
They contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy, formed very early in the history of the Galaxy.
However, their role in galactic evolution is still a matter of study.
This cluster is seen roughly in the direction of the center of the Milky Way, in the constellation Scorpio (Scorpio).
This constellation is a gold mine of fascinating astronomical objects.
Hubble has set his sights on Scorpius many times to observe objects such as the butterfly nebula, the amazing binary star systems and other dazzling globular clusters.
Astronomers Unveiled the Most Comprehensive High-Resolution Ultraviolet Light
They combined new Hubble observations with Hubble archive images for 50 star-shaped galaxies and of dwarf galaxies in the local universe.
The project, called the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), has amassed star catalogs for each of the galaxies and catalogs of LEGUS clusters for 30 galaxies, as well as images of the galaxies themselves.
the complete catalog, click here.
"There have never been clusters of stars and stellar catalog including observations in ultraviolet light," said Daniela Calzetti, head of the investigation at the University of California. University of Massachusetts, Amherst
. "Ultraviolet light is a major tracer of the youngest and hottest star populations, which astronomers need to derive the ages of the stars and obtain a complete stellar history.
"The synergy of the two catalogs combined offers unprecedented potential to understand the formation of stars."
The formation of the stars remains a thorny question in astronomy, say the experts
. the universe comes from the stars, and yet we still do not understand many aspects of star formation, "said Elena Sabbi, a member of the Space Telescope Science Institute team in Baltimore, Maryland.
"This is even the key to our existence – we know that life would not be there if we had no star"
Star Cluster Catalogs contain about 8,000 young clusters whose ages range from 1 million to about 500 million years old.
These stellar groupings are up to 10 times more massive than the largest groups in our Milky Way galaxy
Star catalogs include about 39 million stars that are at less five times more massive than our Sun.
Stars in visible light images are between 1 million and several billion years old; the youngest stars, those between 1 million and 100 million years old, shine in ultraviolet light.
Hubble data provides all the information needed to analyze these galaxies, say the researchers.
"We also offer computer models to help astronomers interpret data from star catalogs and clusters," said Sabbi.
"Researchers, for example, can study how star formation has occurred in a specific galaxy or set of galaxies. They can correlate the properties of galaxies with their star formation.
They can derive the history of star formation from galaxies.
"Ultraviolet light images can also help astronomers identify the progenitor stars of supernovae found in the data."
One of the key questions from the survey can help astronomers answer to the question of the connection between stars and major structures. "When we look at a spiral galaxy, we do not see just a random distribution of stars," says Calzetti.
"It's a very orderly structure, whether it's arms or spiral rings, which is especially true for the youngest stellar populations."
"On the other hand, it There are multiple competing theories for linking individual stars in individual star clusters to these ordered structures.
"Seeing the galaxies in very fine detail – the star clusters – while showing the link in the larger structures, we try to identify the physical parameters that underlie this classification of stellar populations in galaxies.
Get the last link between gas formation and stars is essential for Understanding the evolution of galaxies. "
" Data from the catalogs of stars and clusters of these nearby galaxies will pave the way for what we see observatory, the space telescope James Webb, develop in partnership with the & # 39; ESA and & # 39; Canadian Space Agency (CSA), said Mr Sabbi [19659017]. Webb's observations would complement the views of LEGUS.
The space observatory will enter the dusty stellar cocoons to reveal the infrared glow of nascent stars, which can not be seen in visible and ultraviolet images.
'Webb will be able to see how star formation spreads on a galaxy,' Sabbi continued.
"If you have information about gas properties, you can really connect the dots and see where, when and how star formation occurs."
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