NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope observes a sparkling globular cluster, named Terzan 12, located 15,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The stars you see in this globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards the center, and the Milky Way alone has about 150 ancient globular clusters at its outskirts.
Since Terzan 12 is nestled deep within the Milky Way, the globular cluster is shrouded in gas and dust which absorb and alter its starlight. The location causes interstellar dust particles between us and the cluster to scatter blue light, resulting in only the redder wavelengths coming through to Earth. What appears to be the brightest red stars in the photo are actually bloated, aging giants, many times larger than our Sun.
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Terzan 12 is one of 11 globular clusters discovered by the Turkish-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan approximately a half-century ago. With its sharp vision, Hubble has revolutionized the study of globular clusters ever since its launch in 1990. Hubble observations have shed light on the relation between age and composition in the Milky Way galaxy’s innermost globular clusters,” said NASA.
