HubbleSite: Image – Globular Star Cluster NGC 1466

About this image

This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals an ancient, glimmering ball of stars called NGC 1466. It is a globular cluster — a gathering of stars all held together by gravity — that is slowly moving through space on the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our closest galactic neighbors.

Blue straggler stars are blue, bright stars, with a higher mass than the average for a cluster, and they are expected to sink towards the center of a star cluster over time. Those closest to the cluster core are the first to migrate inwards, with more distant blue stragglers progressively moving inwards over time.

TagsGalaxiesMagellanic CloudsObservationsStar ClustersStars

Credits

ESA and NASA