Scattered stars in Sagittarius

Esahubble_potw1624a_1024

esahubble_potw1624a June 13th, 2016

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This colourful and star-studded view of the Milky Way galaxy was captured when the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope pointed its cameras towards the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). Blue stars can be seen scattered across the frame, set against a distant backdrop of red-hued cosmic companions. This blue litter most likely formed at the same time from the same collapsing molecular cloud. The colour of a star can reveal many of its secrets. Shades of red indicate a star much cooler than the Sun, so either at the end of its life, or much less massive. These lower-mass stars are called red dwarfs and are thought to be the most common type of star within the Milky Way. Similarly, brilliant blue hues indicate hot, young, or massive stars, many times the mass of the Sun. A stars mass decides its fate; more massive stars burn brightly over a short lifespan, and die young after only tens of millions of years. Stars like the Sun typically have more sedentary lifestyles and live longer, burning for approximately ten billion years. Smaller stars, on the other hand, live life in the slow lane and are predicted to exist for trillions of years, well beyond the current age of the Universe.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1624a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Constellation Sagittarius
Subject - Milky Way
Star
Esahubble_potw1624a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 47m 51.3s
DEC = -24° 42’ 17.0”
Orientation
North is 88.2° CCW
Field of View
3.2 x 1.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical 435.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical 606.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1624a_1280
×
ID
potw1624a
Subject Category
B.3  
Subject Name
Constellation Sagittarius
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2016-06-13T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1624a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
435, 606, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
266.963936444, -24.7047282322
Reference Dimension
3876.0, 1834.0
Reference Pixel
1938.0, 917.0
Scale
-1.38993783903e-05, 1.38993783903e-05
Rotation
88.2
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
potw1624a
Metadata Date
2016-03-10T17:17:28+01:00
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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