NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a mesmerizing image of Messier 80 (M80) that appears even more unbelievable when panning across the stellar swarm. This globular cluster is located approximately 32,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius and contains hundreds of thousands of stars, all held together by their mutual gravitational attraction.
Believe it or not, every single star visible in this image is either more highly evolved than, or in a few rare cases, even larger than our own Sun. The most obvious examples are the bright red giants, which are stars similar to the Sun in mass that are nearing the ends of their lives.
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So the blue stragglers in M80 seem to indicate that there are lots of collisions, yet the nova-like stars suggest only a few. Sometimes life for astronomers isn’t so simple, but it is from exploring discrepancies like this that our understanding eventually deepens,” said the NASA Hubble Mission Team.
