The Hubble Space Telescope has taken high-quality images of the star cluster ESO 591-12. It has been known for a long time, but has not yet been sufficiently studied. Its research is part of a much larger program.
Globular cluster
The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the incredible beauty of a previously unexplored globular cluster known as ESO 591-12 or Palomar 8. Objects similar to it are spherical structures containing tens of thousands to several million stars, tightly bound together by gravity.
Globular clusters usually form in the early stages of galaxy history in regions rich in gas and dust. Since stars form from the same collapsing cloud of gas, they usually have similar ages and chemical compositions.
The ESO 591-12 cluster is located in the Milky Way galaxy and has been known for quite some time. However, it has remained unexplored by the Hubble telescope until now. The new image shows ESO 591-12 as a scattering of blue and red stars. The colors indicate their temperature, with red stars being cooler and blue stars being hotter.
Part of a larger study
The Hubble data on ESO 591-12, which formed the basis for the image, are part of a much larger study aimed at distinguishing individual stars throughout the Milky Way’s globular cluster system. After all, unlike ground-based instruments, space-based instruments are capable of doing this.
The study of ESO 591-12 is part of the Hubble Missing Globular Clusters Survey, which covers 34 confirmed globular clusters in the Milky Way that have not previously been observed by Hubble.
The program aims to provide complete observations of age and distance for all globular clusters in the Milky Way and to investigate the fundamental properties of clusters in the galactic bulge or halo that have not yet been studied. The observations will provide key information about the early stages of our galaxy’s development, when globular clusters were forming.
According to phys.org
