Hubble shows a glittering starry world inside our Milky Way galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12. This celestial body is located deep within the Milky Way galaxy, specifically in the constellation Sagittarius, and is approximately 15,000 light-years away from Earth.

Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars that orbit around the galactic center. They are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards the center.

The image of Terzan 12 is particularly noteworthy due to the effect of interstellar dust on the starlight emanating from the cluster. This dust absorbs and alters the starlight, causing only the redder wavelengths to reach Earth. This phenomenon, known as "reddening," results in different parts of the cluster appearing redder than others along our line of sight.

The Milky Way is home to about 150 such ancient clusters, which are situated far above and below the flat plane of our galaxy, akin to bees buzzing around a hive.

Terzan 12 is one of 11 globular clusters discovered by Turkish-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan about half a century ago.

The Hubble Space Telescope, since its launch in 1990, has revolutionised the study of these clusters. Its sharp vision has provided valuable insights into the relationship between age and composition in the innermost globular clusters of the Milky Way.

The brightest red stars in the image are bloated, aging giants, many times larger than our Sun. These stars lie between Earth and the cluster, with only a few potentially being actual members of the cluster.

The very brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight but are not inside the cluster, which only contains aging stars.