Sunny Priyan
Hubble's image reveals the dense, glittering stars of Terzan 4, showcasing the intense star density at its core.
Globular clusters are spherical collections of millions of stars, bound together by gravity, and they often reside in the halos of galaxies.
The heart of a globular cluster, like Terzan 4, is packed with stars so tightly that individual stars are difficult to distinguish from one another, especially with ground-based telescopes.
Launched in 1990, Hubble revolutionized globular cluster studies with high-resolution images that reveal individual stars in dense regions.
Astronomers use Hubble to study globular clusters like Terzan 4 to understand their structure, age, and evolution, particularly those near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Studying globular clusters helps scientists learn more about stellar evolution, the dynamics of star populations, and the overall history of galaxies.