New spectacular photo of globular cluster Messier 9

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced the so far most detailed image so far of Messier 9, a globular star cluster located close to the centre of the galaxy. This ball of stars is too faint to see with the naked eye, yet Hubble can see over 250 000 individual stars shining in it.

Read the full paper here


This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the globular cluster Messier 9. Hubble’s image resolves stars right into the centre of the cluster, and clearly shows they have different colours. Redder colours signify lower surface temperatures, while blue stars are extremely hot. (Credit: NASA & ESA)

See also the full hi-res photo here. Very spectacular indeed!!

This has to be one of the prettiest space pics I've seen on here so far...and space pics never fail to impress.
Thanx for sharing S&F

reply to post by elevenaugust


Dazzling!

This image just pulls you there like you're floating in front of it in space. What breathtaking beauty!

pictures like these to me erase all doupt they we could be alone in the universe

Imagine how cool looking up at the night sky would be from a planet circling one of those stars... I wonder if there would even be a night time or just a bunch of bright light. So cool.

and to think that most of those stars have planets orbiting around them

yet some people still think we're alone in the universe

Holy crap that's a lot of pretty light. I wonder how far apart they really are from each other. Looks like one could be a mile away from the other haha. That would be awesome to see a star collide with another star.

What a termendous number of stars! Some societys/religions believe that we become stars in the universe. Maybe I could only speculate. My thoughts come back to Dr Carl Sagan and his "Billions and Billions of stars" comment, the mathematical probabilities of other races existing and how we could assume we would be average at best in our advancement. We need to be out there exploring just like the sci-fi world has been plugging for years. The problems holding us back may be more about fighting governments than available technology.

Originally posted by anthbes
Imagine how cool looking up at the night sky would be from a planet circling one of those stars... I wonder if there would even be a night time or just a bunch of bright light. So cool.

Yeah imagine living on a planet orbiting one of the stars near the center of the Milky Way. I'd compare it to nighttime in New York as compared to nighttime here in West Texas

Grand universe!

Thanks guys!

Here's how M9 appears from various telescopes and viewers:


0.9-m telescope of KPNO


Ritchey-Chretien 32" Telescope, Focal Ratio: f7.2 (prime focus), Camera: SBIG STL-11000 CCD camera, Exposure: 14 x 1 minutes Luminance unbinned and 6 x 1 minutes each R/G/B, all unbinned.

Source: Misti Mountain observatory


30-second red-light exposure (through clouds) with a Tektronix 2048x2048 CCD at the prime focus of the 4-meter Mayall telescope of Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Source: Messier Observatory




Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows a wide-field view of globular cluster Messier 9 and its surroundings, imaged by a ground-based telescope

Source: spacetelescope.org

....to compare with the one in my first post above!

reply to post by elevenaugust


That HD picture from the link almost looks 3D too..very nice

Thats a very nice picture

But i actually hate it, cause i so much want to go there, and i know i will never be able to

Originally posted by Mianeye
Thats a very nice picture

But i actually hate it, cause i so much want to go there, and i know i will never be able to

Well, you never know, life is full of surprises sometimes!

Yep were definitely alone in the universe

I mean whats the point of all that and nobody to experience/see/enjoy it.

Originally posted by muse7
and to think that most of those stars have planets orbiting around them

yet some people still think we're alone in the universe

There is no proof they are all stars. More likely they are planets with moons. I have yet to see proof that even our nearest neighbouring 'stars' are really stars. Check out this free book:
astronomyinformation.org...