In this view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the open star cluster NGC 1755 looks like a sprinkle of salt thrown on a jet-black tablecloth. This cluster of stars is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s closest neighbors, and spans 120 light-years from side to side.
Despite its amazing size, NGC 1755 belongs to the minor star cluster class. Star clusters are gravitationally bonded groups of stars that occur in two sizes: smaller open clusters like NGC 1755 that house younger stars, and massive globular clusters that may hold millions of older stars.
Hubble studied NGC 1755’s heart to learn more about how diverse populations of stars may coexist in a single cluster. A population of stars is a collection of stars with similar characteristics like age or chemical composition, and these populations give astronomers vital information about the births, lives, and deaths of stars.
Because of the Clouds’ closeness to the Milky Way, clusters in the Magellanic Clouds are particularly valuable nature laboratories. With so many stars packed into such a compact region of the sky, Hubble’s high-resolution Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 allowed individual stars in the cluster to be recognized, which was a crucial benefit while viewing NGC 1755.
Related: How do you observe a Dark Nebula?
What Does the Hubble Space Telescope Do?
The Hubble Space Telescope is a huge telescope in space. Hubble was launched by NASA in 1990. Hubble is the length of a school bus. It’s the size of two adult elephants.
Hubble travels at a speed of around 5 kilometers per second around the Earth. That’s the equivalent of driving a car from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States in 10 minutes.
Hubble is pointing outwards towards space. Planets, stars, and galaxies are photographed by it. Hubble has witnessed the birth of stars. Hubble has witnessed the death of stars.
It has spotted galaxies billions of light-years away. Hubble has also witnessed comet fragments colliding with Jupiter’s gaseous atmosphere. Hubble images have taught scientists a lot about space. The photographs are very lovely to look at.
A Beautiful Sprinkling of Stars is Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope
In this view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the open star cluster NGC 1755 looks like a sprinkle of salt thrown on a jet-black tablecloth. This cluster of stars is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s closest neighbors, and spans 120 light-years from side to side.
Despite its amazing size, NGC 1755 belongs to the minor star cluster class. Star clusters are gravitationally bonded groups of stars that occur in two sizes: smaller open clusters like NGC 1755 that house younger stars, and massive globular clusters that may hold millions of older stars.
Also read: NASA’s Hubble Uncovers a Burst of Star Formation
Why does the Hubble space telescope produce such high-quality images?
The Earth’s atmosphere alters and obstructs part of the light from space. Hubble circles the Earth and its atmosphere, or orbiting it.
As a result, Hubble can observe space better than Earth-based telescopes. Hubble then utilizes radio waves to relay the images back to Earth over the air.
Why do certain Hubble images appear to have a stairwell-like shape?
Hubble contains a variety of sensors onboard, most modern digital cameras, that have been improved and replaced on a regular basis over Hubble’s five servicing missions. Between 1994 and 2010, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) took photos with an intriguing staircase-like form.
This is due to the camera’s construction, which consisted of four light detectors with overlapping fields of vision, one of which had a larger magnification than the others.
The high magnification image must be lowered in size when the four photos are merged into one picture for the image to line properly. This results in a picture with a layout that appears to be three steps long. Here’s an illustration of one of these:
Conclusion
Hubble is the only telescope built to be maintained by humans in space. All five of the telescope’s major instruments have been repaired, updated, or replaced as a result of five Space Shuttle trips. Following the Columbia tragedy, the fifth mission was initially canceled for safety reasons, but NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission, which was completed in 2009.
The telescope celebrated its 30th anniversary in April 2020[1] and is expected to continue operating until 2030–2040. The James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched in December 2021, is one of Hubble’s successors.
Author
