Globular Cluster NGC 6388 in Scorpius | Hubble Space Telescope

Globular Cluster NGC 6388 in Scorpius | Hubble Space Telescope

This image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 6388, a dynamically middle-aged globular cluster in the Milky Way. While the cluster formed in the distant past (like all globular clusters, it is over ten billion years old), a study of the distribution of bright blue stars within the cluster shows that it has aged at a moderate speed, and its heaviest stars are in the process of migrating to the center.

Distance from Earth: ~35,000 light years

A new study using Hubble data has discovered that globular clusters of the same age can have major variances in the distribution of blue straggler stars within them, suggesting that clusters can age at substantially distinct rates.

Credit: NASA, ESA, F. Ferraro (University of Bologna)
Release Date: Dec.19, 2012

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