Hubble Space Telescope: Starstruck in Terzan 4



This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the globular cluster Terzan 4 filled with a sparkling sea of stars. Globular clusters, which can have millions of individual stars inside of them, are groups of stars held together by their gravitational pull. The centre of a globular cluster like Terzan 4 is a tightly packed, crowded field of stars, as this image demonstrates, which makes for amazing photos!

The investigation of globular clusters underwent a revolution after Hubble's 1990 debut. With ground-based telescopes, it is practically hard to tell the individual stars apart from one another, but with space telescopes, it is conceivable. Hubble's sharp vision has allowed astronomers to analyze the stars that make up globular clusters as well as how these systems evolve over time.

This particular observation was made by astronomers using Hubble to study Terzan 4 and other globular clusters to learn more about the structure, age, and density of globular clusters around the Milky Way's center. Because of the gas and dust clouds circling the galactic core, these globular clusters have eluded careful investigation, unlike globular clusters elsewhere in the sky. Astronomers refer to this process of starlight extinction as extinction by these clouds, which makes astronomical studies more challenging.

Terzan 4 was spared from the effects of extinction thanks to the sensitivity of two Hubble sensors, the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Astronomers were able to estimate the ages of galactic globular clusters to within a billion years by fusing Hubble pictures with advanced data processing - a respectably precise measurement in astronomy!

By ESA/HUBBLE 

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