Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




STELLAR CHEMISTRY
A Celestial Snow Globe Of Stars
by Staff Writers
Baltimore MD (SPX) Dec 05, 2008


This image is a composite of archival Hubble data taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Observations from four separate science proposals taken in November 1999, April 2000, August 2005, and April 2006 were used. The image includes broadband filters that isolate light from the blue, visible, and infrared portions of the spectrum. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: C. Bailyn (Yale University), W. Lewin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), A. Sarajedini (University of Florida), and W. van Altena (Yale University)

Like a whirl of shiny flakes sparkling in a snow globe, Hubble catches an instantaneous glimpse of many hundreds of thousands of stars moving about in the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest and best-known globular clusters in the northern sky. This glittering metropolis of stars is easily found in the winter sky in the constellation Hercules and can even be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

M13 is home to over 100,000 stars and located at a distance of 25,000 light-years. These stars are packed so closely together in a ball, approximately 150 light-years across, that they will spend their entire lives whirling around in the cluster.

Near the core of this cluster, the density of stars is about a hundred times greater than the density in the neighborhood of our sun. These stars are so crowded that they can, at times, slam into each other and even form a new star, called a "blue straggler."

The brightest reddish stars in the cluster are ancient red giants. These aging stars have expanded to many times their original diameters and cooled. The blue-white stars are the hottest in the cluster.

Globular clusters can be found spread largely in a vast halo around our galaxy. M13 is one of nearly 150 known globular clusters surrounding our Milky Way galaxy.

Globular clusters have some of the oldest stars in the universe. They likely formed before the disk of our Milky Way, so they are older than nearly all other stars in our galaxy. Studying globular clusters therefore tells us about the history of our galaxy.

.


Related Links
Hubblesite
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Brown Dwarfs Do Form Like Stars
Cambridge MA (SPX) Dec 04, 2008
Astronomers have uncovered strong evidence that brown dwarfs form like stars. Using the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA), they detected molecules of carbon monoxide shooting outward from the object known as ISO-Oph 102. Such molecular outflows typically are seen coming from young stars or protostars. However, this object has an estimated mass of 60 Jupiters, meaning it is too small ... read more


STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Goodyear And NASA Successfully Recreate Original Moon Tire

India Can Send Manned Mission To Moon By 2020

Chandrayaan-1 Starts Observations Of The Moon

Racers Get Ready! NASA's Great Moonbuggy Registration Begins

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Ancient Climate Cycles Recorded In Mars Rocks

Mars Science Lab Launch Delayed Two Years

Simulating Mars On Earth

NASA delays Mars mission until 2011

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Iran To Send Animals Into Space

Solving The Problems Of Garbage In Space

Kazakhstan To Fund ISS Flight For Homegrown Astronaut

Kazakh Astronaut To Fly To ISS, Russian Hopeful Grounded

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
China's Future Astronauts Will Be Scientists

China Launches Remote Sensing Satellite

Damaged Nigerian satellite can't be recovered: officials

The Chinese Space Industry Set For Take Off

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
A Station Celebration

NASA Signs Modification To Contract With Russian Space Agency

New Russian Space Freighter Docks With World Orbital Station

ESA wants International Space Station to live longer

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Arianespace To Launch ViaSat-1

Russia To Launch Two Telecoms Satellites In February 2009

Russia Launches New Space Freighter To ISS

South Korea To Launch Maritime Weather Satellite Next Year

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Students Discover Unique Planet

Researchers Say Tides Can Cut Life Short On Planets Orbiting Smaller Stars

Beta Pictoris Planet Finally Imaged

New Planet Orbiting Dangerously Close To Giant Star

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
ESA Satellites Flying In Formation

Kazakhstan Admits Losing Satellite

Astronomers hope to see orbiting tool bag

Please don't litter space, scientists say




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement