NASA has released a beautiful new image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 6441, one of about 150 globular clusters belonging to our Milky Way Galaxy.
This Hubble image shows the massive globular cluster NGC 6441. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the ultraviolet and optical parts of the spectrum. Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / G. Piotto.
NGC 6441 is a 13-billion-year-old globular cluster located in the southern constellation of Scorpius.
The cluster was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 13, 1826.
NGC 6441 is approximately 44,000 light-years from Earth and 13,000 light-years from the Milky Way’s center.
It is one of the most massive and luminous globular clusters in our Galaxy.
“The exact number of stars in such a cluster is difficult to discern,” Hubble astronomers said.
“It is estimated that together its stars weigh 1.6 million times the mass of the Sun, making NGC 6441 one of the most massive and luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way.”
NGC 6441 hosts at least four millisecond pulsars, of which two are in binary systems.
It also contains a planetary nebula called JaFu 2, one of only four planetary nebulae known to inhabit globular clusters in the Milky Way.
“Despite its name, this has little to do with planets,” the researchers said.
“Planetary nebulae — a phase in the evolution of intermediate-mass stars — last for only a few tens of thousands of years, the blink of an eye on astronomical timescales.”
