2001: Hubble spies star clusters formed by ancient encounter

600 million years ago a violent encounter between two of the Milky Way's close neighbours M81 and M82 was the cause of the creation of more than 100 young, bright, compact star clusters, known as super star clusters in M82's central region.
European and American astronomers using the sharp vision of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveal for the first time important details of these super star clusters.

The beautiful Hubble image shows the super star clusters as compact groupings of about 100,000 stars as white spots sprinkled between M82's huge lanes of dust. The astronomers have used Hubble to date the ancient encounter between M81 and M82 and provide evidence linking the birth of the super star clusters with the interaction.
3. Hubble's unique ability to make sharp pictures in infrared light enables the astronomers led by Richard Grijs from Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK, to see through the masses of dust and gas. The super star clusters as well as individual stars in M82 are revealed in unprecedented detail.

M82 is a nearby bright galaxy - a mere 12 million light-years away - in the constellation Ursa Major. Also today the galaxy is giving birth to new stars, and it is known as a prototypical star-birth galaxy.

Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 2001
• space
• iaf
• esa
• hubble
• hst

[An0nym0us53]

Only two comments 3 likes... and 1,806 views weird >.>

[JacksonJunior101]

Uh, yes it does.

[freecounselingonline]

600 million light years away does not mean 600 million years ago --atheists lies again..