Hubble Space Telescope images of M80

Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 photo of M80

Globular star cluster M80, a swarm hundreds of thousands of stars, was

imaged here by the Hubble Space Telescope’s WFPC2 camera. Only the

brighter stars, brighter than our sun, are shown here, because of the

cluster’s large distance (roughly 28,000 light years). Especially obvious

are the bright red giants, which are stars similar to the Sun in mass that

are nearing the ends of their lives.

Analysis of WFPC2 images of M80 both in the visible and the UV part of the

electromagnetic spectrum has led to the discovery of an unusually large

number of “blue stragglers”, stars which have lost their cooler outer

layers in close mutual encounters. This is in good agreement with the fact

that the core of M80 is one of the densest of all globulars in our

Milky Way Galaxy, but not with the finding of only

two nova-like close binary stars in this cluster.

Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/ STScI/ NASA)