1:13 pm
Tuesday 10 January 2023
The Hubble Telescope has sent back a new image showing what can best be described as a sea of stars near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, in the form of an ancient globular star cluster.
Scientists believe the stars in this image are around 12 billion years old, making them among the oldest stars in the universe.
And the huge star cluster, known as the globular star cluster or closed star cluster, is called Pismis 26, according to the website (Space).
It is named after astronomer Paris Pismis, who discovered star clusters at the Tonantzintla Observatory in Mexico more than 60 years ago.
The stars of Pismis 26 have a nearly spherical structure. The cluster appears to contain mostly red stars, with some bright blue stars around the edges. These colors are partly due to the cluster’s estimated age of 12 billion years, meaning it contains many of the oldest stars in our galaxy, if not the universe.
These red stars are likely much older than the bright blue stars that are typical of large, young, fast-burning stars that die early, or the yellow star that straddles the line between the two.
Scientists believe these stars are rich in nitrogen, which also indicates that the globular cluster’s star population spans a range of ages, according to a NASA statement.
