An unexpected population of young-looking stars

Esahubble_potw1244a_1024

esahubble_potw1244a October 29th, 2012

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA 

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope offers an impressive view of the centre of globular cluster NGC 6362. The image of this spherical collection of stars takes a deeper look at the core of the globular cluster, which contains a high concentration of stars with different colours. Tightly bound by gravity, globular clusters are composed of old stars, which, at around 10 billion years old, are much older than the Sun. These clusters are fairly common, with more than 150 currently known in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and more which have been spotted in other galaxies. Globular clusters are among the oldest structures in the Universe that are accessible to direct observational investigation, making them living fossils from the early years of the cosmos. Astronomers infer important properties of globular clusters by looking at the light from their constituent stars. For many years, they were regarded as ideal laboratories for testing the standard stellar evolution theory. Among other things, this theory suggests that most of the stars within a globular cluster should be of a similar age. Recently, however, high precision measurements performed in numerous globular clusters, primarily with the Hubble Space Telescope, has led some to question this widely accepted theory. In particular, certain stars appear younger and bluer than their companions, and they have been dubbed blue stragglers. NGC 6362 contains many of these stars. Since they are usually found in the core regions of clusters, where the concentration of stars is large, the most likely explanation for this unexpected population of objects seems to be that they could be either the result of stellar collisions or transfer of material between stars in binary systems. This influx of new material would heat up the star and make it appear younger than its neighbours. NGC 6362 is located about 25 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ara (The Altar). British astronomer James Dunlop first observed this globular cluster on 30 June 1826. This image was created combining ultraviolet, visual and infrared images taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3. An image image of NGC 6362 taken by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope will be published by the European Southern Observatory on Wednesday. See it on www.eso.org from 12:00 on 31 October.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1244a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 6362
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Grouping > Cluster > Globular
Esahubble_potw1244a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 31m 55.4s
DEC = -67° 2’ 52.1”
Orientation
North is 64.1° CCW
Field of View
2.6 x 2.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Ara

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) 625.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (U) 336.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw1244a_1280
×
ID
potw1244a
Subject Category
B.3.6.4.2  
Subject Name
NGC 6362
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA 
Release Date
2012-10-29T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1244a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Optical, Ultraviolet
Bandpass
I, R, U
Central Wavelength
814, 625, 336
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
262.980730927, -67.0478082449
Reference Dimension
3061.0, 3061.0
Reference Pixel
1530.0, 1530.0
Scale
-1.38873204953e-05, 1.38873204953e-05
Rotation
64.060000000000187
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1244a
Metadata Date
2012-10-04T00:20:37+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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