NGC 6652

Esahubble_potw2331a_1024

esahubble_potw2331a July 31st, 2023

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto

The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The core of the cluster is suffused with the pale blue light of countless stars, and a handful of particularly bright foreground stars are adorned with criss-crossing diffraction spikes. NGC 6652 lies in our own Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius, just under 30 000 light-years from Earth and only 6500 light-years from the Galactic centre. Globular clusters are stable, tightly gravitationally bound clusters containing anywhere between tens of thousands and millions of stars. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars in globular clusters is what gives these star-studded objects their regular, spherical shape. This image combines data from two of Hubble’s third-generation instruments; the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. As well as two instruments, this image draws on two different observing programmes from two different teams of astronomers. The first team set out to survey globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy in the hope of shedding light on topics ranging from the ages of these objects to the gravitational potential of the galaxy as a whole. The second team of astronomers used a trio of exquisitely sensitive filters in Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to disentangle the proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in globular clusters such as NGC 6652. [Image Description: A dense spherical cluster of stars. The stars merge into a bright core in the centre, and spread out to the edges gradually, giving way to an empty, dark background. Most of the stars are small points of light. A few stars with cross-shaped diffraction spikes appear larger, and stand out in front.]

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2331a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 6652
Esahubble_potw2331a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 18h 35m 45.7s
DEC = -32° 59’ 29.2”
Orientation
North is 11.7° CW
Field of View
2.5 x 2.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (UV) 275.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (U) 336.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (B) 438.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Blue
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw2331a_1280
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ID
potw2331a
Subject Category
Subject Name
NGC 6652
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto
Release Date
2023-07-31T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2331a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Blue, Blue, Green, Red
Band
Ultraviolet, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
UV, U, B, V, I
Central Wavelength
275, 336, 438, 606, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
278.9405151790798, -32.99144417314034
Reference Dimension
3708.0, 3774.0
Reference Pixel
1854.0, 1887.0
Scale
-1.111110095696337e-05, 1.111110095696337e-05
Rotation
-11.68
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw2331a
Metadata Date
2023-07-28T16:02:25+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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