Youthful Globular Star Cluster NGC 362 in Tucana | Hubble Space Telescope

Youthful Globular Star Cluster NGC 362 in Tucana | Hubble Space Telescope

Globular clusters are among the most spectacular sights in the night sky. These ornate spheres contain hundreds of thousands of stars, and reside in the outskirts of galaxies. The Milky Way contains over 150 such clusters—and the one shown in this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image, named NGC 362, is one of the more unusual ones.

As stars make their way through life they fuse elements together in their cores, creating heavier and heavier elements—known in astronomy as metals—in the process. When these stars die, they flood their surroundings with the material they have formed during their lifetimes, enriching the interstellar medium with metals. Stars that form later therefore contain higher proportions of metals than their older relatives.

By studying the different elements present within individual stars in NGC 362, astronomers discovered that the cluster boasts a surprisingly high metal content, indicating that it is younger than expected. Although most globular clusters are much older than the majority of stars in their host galaxy, NGC 362 bucks the trend, with an age lying between 10 and 11 billion years old. For reference, the age of the Milky Way is estimated to be above 13 billion years.

NGC 362 (also known as Caldwell 104) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana in the Southern Hemisphere, slightly north of the Small Magellanic Cloud, to which it is completely unrelated. It was discovered on August 1, 1826, by James Dunlop. It is visible to the naked eye in dark skies, and is an impressive sight in a telescope, although it is somewhat overshadowed by its larger and brighter neighbor 47 Tucanae.

This image, where you can view NGC 362’s individual stars, was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: Oct. 24, 2016

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