Musings in the Cosmos
Hubble Watches Star Clusters on a Collision Course
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI)

Hubble Watches Star Clusters on a Collision Course

Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI)

ESA’s pioneering Cluster mission is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During the past decade, Cluster’s four satellites have provided extraordinary insights into the largely invisible interaction between the Sun and Earth.

A new image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows the dusty remains of a collapsed star. The dust is flying past and engulfing a nearby family of stars. Scientists think the stars in the image are part of a stellar cluster in which the a supernova exploded. The material ejected in the explosion is now blowing past these stars at high velocities.