Daily Telescope: Hubble images a dazzling star cluster 158,000 light-years away

Good morning. It's December 11, and today's photograph takes us to the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the very nearest galaxies to our own and lies about 158,000 light-years away.

This Hubble Space Telescope image showcases a brilliant globular cluster within the Large Magellanic Cloud. Such clusters are tightly bound and gravitationally stable, meaning millions of stars persist in a (relatively) tightly confined space for billions of years. This makes them an attractive target for astronomers seeking to study older stars.

This cluster, known as NGC 2210, was discovered by astronomer John Herschel nearly two centuries ago. It is believed to be about 11.6 billion years old.

Frankly, this gorgeous image amazes me because you have so many stars, big and small, clustered so tightly together—it is thousands of times more dense than our corner of the Milky Way Galaxy. The nighttime sky would be rather bright were Earth situated there. This image is also a testament to the observing power of the Hubble Space Telescope, which captures the Large Magellanic Cloud's incredible scope and grandeur.

Source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, F. Niederhofer