The Hubble telescope showed the bright “heart” of the Sagittarius constellation
- Author:
- Sofiia Telishevska
- Date:
The Hubble Space Telescope, thanks to its wide-angle universal camera WFC3, photographed the central part of the globular star cluster NGC 6638 in the constellation Sagittarius.
This is reported by the observatory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Hubble revolutionized the study of globular clusters, since it is almost impossible to clearly distinguish the stars in them with ground-based telescopes.
The blur caused by Earthʼs atmosphere makes it difficult to distinguish one star from another, but thanks to Hubbleʼs low-Earth orbit, our planetʼs atmosphere no longer interferes.
Therefore, Hubble is used to study which stars make up globular clusters, how they evolve, and what role gravity plays in these dense systems.
- The Hubble telescope was put into orbit on April 24, 1990, since then it has been sending millions of unique images to Earth, which have greatly expanded scientistsʼ understanding of the structure and origin of the universe. The device has already conducted 1.2 million targeted observations of 38,000 space objects.