NGC 1898: Globular Cluster in the LMC
Explanation:
Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do.
And almost every spot in this
glittering
jewel-box of an image from the
Hubble Space Telescope is a star.
Now some stars are more red than our
Sun, and some more blue -- but all of them are much farther away.
Although it takes light about 8 minutes to reach
Earth from the Sun,
NGC 1898 is so far away that it takes light about 160,000
years to get here.
This
huge ball of stars, NGC 1898, is called a
globular cluster and resides in the
central bar of the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) -- a
satellite galaxy of our large
Milky Way Galaxy.
The featured multi-colored image includes light from the
infrared to the
ultraviolet
and was taken to help determine if the
stars of NGC 1898 all formed at the same time, or at different times.
There are increasing indications that most
globular clusters formed stars in stages, and that, in particular,
stars from NGC 1898 formed shortly after
ancient encounters with the
Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and our Milky Way Galaxy.
Space Telescope Live:
Where is Hubble looking right now?
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
