The spherical cluster consists of millions of stars.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PARIS — Space Telescope Hubble displays a new image, namely a spherical cluster Terzan 9 sparkling. Spherical clusters are clusters of stars that number in the tens of thousands to millions, according to a June 17 blog post from the European Space Agency (ESA) about the latest image.
“Terzan 9 is adorned with so many twinkling stars that resemble an ocean of sequins, or a huge treasure chest full of gold,” the ESA official wrote, reported from SpaceWednesday (22/6/2022).
The image is part of the Hubble Space Telescope program which examines the globular cluster towards the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This area is rich in interstellar dust, making it difficult to see objects such as stars.
Dust, the ESA said in its question, “absorbs starlight and can even change the color of the visible stars in this cluster.”
Hubble was able to peek a little through the dust because it could detect some infrared light, the longer wavelengths of which can penetrate certain areas of dust. Hubble primarily observes the universe in visible light, which allows astronomers to study how much the apparent color of stars can change due to interstellar dust.
Knowing the true color of a star, along with its brightness, will better allow astronomers to estimate the age of each star from the spherical cluster.
The wider range of infrared capabilities will be available when NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope goes online next month. Webb, which is supposed to release its first science-level image on July 12, is located much further from Earth than Hubble and has a much larger mirror.
The telescope will be able to see the most distant and oldest galaxies and star clusters that formed in the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, enabling astronomers to answer fundamental questions about the evolution of the universe.
