{"id":205963,"date":"2025-04-26T03:07:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T17:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=b030983c4359fd0b1dcd5aebbdb5610c"},"modified":"2025-04-26T03:07:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T17:07:33","slug":"hubble-visits-glittering-cluster-capturing-its-ultraviolet-light-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=205963","title":{"rendered":"Hubble Visits Glittering Cluster, Capturing Its Ultraviolet Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\">\n<div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\">\n<div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\">\n<figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"891\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?w=891\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Thousands of bright stars fill a spherically shaped globular cluster. In the center, most of the stars appear blue. The globular cluster\u2019s bright blue-white core is surrounded by a thick shell of yellower stars, seen in differing sizes according to their position in the spherical star cluster. They spread out beyond the edges of the image, appearing smaller and sparser at the corners of the image. A distant spiral galaxy is also visible in the lower-left corner of the image.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg 891w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?resize=297,300 297w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?resize=768,776 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?resize=50,50 50w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?resize=100,100 100w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?resize=396,400 396w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/hubble-m72-potw2516a.jpg?resize=594,600 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 891px) 100vw, 891px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\">\n<div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">This NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular cluster Messier 72 (M72).<\/div>\n<div class=\"hds-credits\">ESA\/Hubble &amp; NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto, M. Libralato<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As part of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/esahubble.org\/projects\/Hubble35\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ESA\/Hubble\u2019s 35th anniversary celebrations<\/a>, the European Space Agency (ESA) shared new images that revisited stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques.<\/p>\n<p>ESA\/Hubble released new images of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/hubble\/hubble-spots-stellar-sculptors-in-nearby-galaxy\/\" rel=\"noopener\">NGC 346<\/a>, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/hubble\/hubble-provides-new-view-of-galactic-favorite\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Sombrero Galaxy<\/a>, and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/hubble\/hubble-spies-cosmic-pillar-in-eagle-nebula\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Eagle Nebula<\/a>&nbsp;earlier in the month. Now they are revisiting the star cluster&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/science\/explore-the-night-sky\/hubble-messier-catalog\/messier-72\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Messier 72 (M72)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>M72 is a collection of stars, formally known as a globular cluster, located in the constellation Aquarius roughly 50,000 light-years from Earth. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars gives globular clusters their regular, spherical shape. There are roughly 150 known globular clusters associated with the Milky Way galaxy.<\/p>\n<p>The striking variety in the color of the stars in this image of M72, particularly compared to the original image, results from the addition of ultraviolet observations to the previous visible-light data. The colors indicate groups of different types of stars. Here, blue stars are those that were originally more massive and have reached hotter temperatures after burning through much of their hydrogen fuel; the bright red objects are lower-mass stars that have become red giants. Studying these different groups help astronomers understand how globular clusters, and the galaxies they were born in, initially formed.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre M\u00e9chain, a French astronomer and colleague of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/people\/explore-the-night-sky-hubbleatms-messier-catalog-bio\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Charles Messier<\/a>, discovered M72 in 1780. It was the first of five star clusters that M\u00e9chain would discover while assisting Messier. They recorded the cluster as the 72nd entry in Messier\u2019s famous collection of astronomical objects. It is also one of the most remote clusters in the catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of\u00a0ESA\/Hubble\u2019s 35th anniversary celebrations, the European Space Agency (ESA) shared new images that revisited stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques. ESA\/Hubble released new images of\u00a0NGC 346, the\u00a0Sombrero Galaxy, and the\u00a0Eagle Nebula\u00a0earlier in the month. Now they are revisiting the star cluster\u00a0Messier 72 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hubble-space-telescope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206065,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205963\/revisions\/206065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}