The James Webb space telescope may finally be out there collecting data, but its predecessor hasn’t called it quits just yet. In fact, the latest image from the Hubble space telescope includes a mind-blowing star cluster unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The cluster in question is NGC 6638, a cluster contained within the constellation Sagittarius.
Hubble’s latest star cluster image is absolutely dazzling
The new image was captured using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Before Hubble was created, it was almost impossible to make out the individual stars in the cluster. That’s because the cluster contains such a dense number of stars. Now, though, we can get a great look at the stars thanks to Hubble’s latest star cluster image.
Normally, when looking at these dense clusters from Earth, you’d have to look through the atmosphere. This can make it difficult to see the finer details of stars within the cluster. However, Hubble orbits Earth around 340 miles above the surface.
As a result, it doesn’t have to look through the haze of most the atmosphere. The telescope may be more than 30 years old, but it can still capture images.
Hubble still has a lot of work to do
This latest Hubble star cluster image is one you’ll want to see for yourself.
Again, it doesn’t have as much detail as James Webb’s first photos. But, it doesn’t need to compete with James Webb. They’re both designed to look at things differently. And, with Hubble, if we find anything that looks exceptionally intriguing, we can always add it to James Webb’s list of missions.
NASA and the ESA, who co-manage Hubble, dropped this latest image at the start of August. As James Webb and Hubble continue to observe the universe, we’ll undoubtedly see even more amazing photographs from the two. Astronomers plan to continue using Hubble in conjunction with James Webb to capture great data like this and discover more about our universe’s origins.
Perhaps in the future, we’ll get an even more mind-blowing look at this Hubble star cluster image when James Webb revisits this location sometime in the future.
