Published 17:58 IST, September 13th 2020
NASA’s Hubble captures spectacular photo of NGC 1805 Globular Cluster
The striking difference in star colors which combines different types of light illutrates, blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet, as per NASA.
On September 12, NASA shared a rare photo of the globular cluster NGC 1805, located near the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Taking to its official Instagram handle, NASA shared the mystic photo of the tight cluster of thousands of stars located near the satellite of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. “In its center, thousands of stars are packed 100 to 1,000 times closer to one another than the nearest stars are to our Sun,” NASA explained in the caption of the post. “The striking difference in star colors is illustrated in the image, which combines different types of light: blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars, illuminated in red and near-infrared,” it added.
The section of the universe packed with thousands of multicolored stars, scientifically known as the globular clusters are all born at the same time. However, the NGC 1805 is unique and different as it contains two separate populations of stars, which are located millions of years apart, tightened together in a cluster. The stars orbit closely to one another, like bees swarming around a hive. NASA said. There are stars, packed almost 100 to 1,000 times closer together compared with the nearest ever known star to the sun in the dense center of NGC 1805 that makes planetary systems around the formation impossible.
Stars brightest in near-ultraviolet light
NASA explained that the stars comprised in the globular cluster were made of different types of light like the blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars, illuminated in red and near-infrared. “Space telescopes like Hubble can observe in the ultraviolet because they are positioned above Earth’s atmosphere, which absorbs most ultraviolet light, making it inaccessible to ground-based facilities,” NASA said. The unique colourful cluster can be viewed in the Southern Hemisphere, in the Dorado constellation, as per NASA. The constellation translates to ‘Dolphinfish’.
Updated 17:58 IST, September 13th 2020