Shine bright like NGC 6397! ✨ This star cluster glitters with the light from hundreds of thousands of stars. At 7,800 light-years away, this is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. Globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of stars bound together by their mutual gravity. The cluster's blue stars are near the end of their lives. These stars have used up their hydrogen fuel that makes them shine. Now, they're converting helium to energy in their cores, which fuses at a higher temperature – resulting in a blue color, as seen in this Hubble view from the mission's 18th year. We're sharing one outstanding image from each year of Hubble’s mission to celebrate its upcoming 35th birthday – counting down to a new series of anniversary images! Stay tuned for more, and get caught up at the link in our bio! Image description: Several white and blue stars with diffraction spikes shine against black space. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Richer (University of British Columbia) #Hubble35 #NASA #Hubble #astronomy #universe #cosmos #stars #space #science #telescope
04.06 22:00