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Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way
NASA / GSFC · Reuse terms

Space / 2017-12-08

Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way

Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way

NASA's image library records Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way.

WHY IT’S INTERESTING

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way. It is located about 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), close to the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is, like its neighbor the Quintuplet Cluster, a fairly young astronomical obj

SERENDIPITYA little unexpected
FamiliarWeird

A CLOSER LOOK

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way. It is located about 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), close to the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is, like its neighbor the Quintuplet Cluster, a fairly young astronomical object at between two and four million years old. The Arches cluster is so dense that in a region with a radius equal to the distance between the sun and its nearest star there would be over 100,000 stars! At least 150 stars within the cluster are among the brightest ever discovered in the Milky Way. These stars are so bright and massive that they will burn their fuel within a short time (on a cosmological scale that means just a few million years).

Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.

FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE

NASA Image and Video LibraryHubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way

Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.