Hubble's latest Hubble image features NGC 330, a star cluster that glitters in a variety of colors including red, white and blue. Due to the variations in their temperatures and ages stars can appear differently. The hottest stars glow blue, while the coolest are glowing red. The temperature range stars can reach is vastly different. For example, the hottest blue stars can reach temperatures of more than 40,000 Kelvin while the coolest stars can reach as low as 2,500 Kelvin.This star cluster can be found in the Small Magellanic Cloud at a distance of approximately 180,000 light years. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a satellite galaxie of the Milky Way. It orbits our galaxy and is therefore a smaller companion galaxy. At just 7,000 light years across, the SMC is small in comparison to the Milky Way. It also contains hundreds of million stars. It is part of a pair with the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxie.Star clusters are not only beautiful to see out of, but also a great way to learn more about the star's life cycle. The Hubble scientists explained that star clusters are formed from one primordial cloud of dust and gas, so all stars in them have roughly the same age. They are therefore useful natural laboratories that allow astronomers to study how stars form and evolve.The Hubble scientists combined two sets observations that both focused on this region of space to create the image. They write that this image is based on observations from Hubbles Widefield Camera 3 and includes data from two very distinct astronomical investigations.The first was to discover why stars in star clusters evolve differently than stars elsewhere. This peculiarity was first discovered with Hubble. The second was to find out how big stars can get before they die in supernova explosions.Editors' Recommendations
