3.
Extreme star cluster
bursts into life
The star-forming region NGC 3603 - seen here in this Hubble image - contains
one of the most impressive massive young star clusters in the Milky Way.
Bathed in gas and dust the cluster formed in a huge rush of star formation
thought to have occurred around a million years ago. The hot blue stars at
the core are responsible for carving out a huge cavity in the gas seen to the
right of the star cluster in NGC 3603’s centre.
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble
Collaboration
“There’s an art to making beautiful images
from scientific data, and the Hubble team has
mastered it. Hubble also came of age at the
same time as the internet, which created a
great opportunity to distribute large format, high
resolution images that are absolutely stunning
on computer desktops and screen savers. Before
that most people only saw astronomy images
published in books or newspapers.
“Hubble also had a fairly dramatic beginning,
with the discovery of the flawed mirror and the
subsequent mission where astronauts actually
traveled to the telescope in order to repair it.
“It is our eye on the universe, but at the same time
it is an actual object in space that we can visit
and even touch, which helps to bring the images
it produces a little closer to home.”
— Dr. Heather Knutson
Assistant Professor of Planetary Science
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California