Photo credit: www.nasa.gov

ESA Celebrates Hubble’s 35th Anniversary with Stunning New Images

In honor of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary, the European Space Agency (ESA) has unveiled remarkable new images that feature classic Hubble targets, enhanced with the latest data and advanced processing technologies.

This month, ESA/Hubble shared images of notable cosmic phenomena such as NGC 346, the Sombrero Galaxy, and the Eagle Nebula. The latest addition revisits the star cluster Messier 72 (M72).

Located in the constellation Aquarius and approximately 50,000 light-years away, M72 is a globular cluster—a tightly knit group of stars held together by their mutual gravitational pull. Globular clusters like M72 maintain a distinct spherical shape due to this intense gravitational attraction. The Milky Way galaxy hosts about 150 known globular clusters, each providing a snapshot of stellar history.

The fresh images reveal a vibrant spectrum of star colors in M72, showcasing a striking contrast to earlier photographs. This difference is attributed to the inclusion of ultraviolet data alongside the previous visible-light observations. The color variations represent distinct categories of stars; blue stars indicate those that were initially more massive and have progressed to hotter stages after consuming much of their hydrogen. In contrast, the bright red stars are low-mass ones that have transitioned into red giants. Analyzing these color patterns enables astronomers to glean insights into the formation of globular clusters and the galaxies in which they originated.

M72 was discovered in 1780 by Pierre Méchain, a French astronomer who collaborated with Charles Messier. This finding marked the beginning of Méchain’s contributions to astronomical discoveries, as he uncovered five star clusters during his work with Messier. M72 is noted as the 72nd entry in Messier’s esteemed catalog of celestial objects and is recognized as one of the most distant clusters documented in this collection.

Source
www.nasa.gov