University of Virginia Department of Astronomy, Photo Courtesy of Jack Looney(www.jacklooney.com)
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Thursday September 2, 2010


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This image of a "super star cluster" in our Galaxy was taken with the new Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. The image combines optical band and infrared band exposures to show how the concentration of white-hot, massive stars in the cluster’s center is evaporating the natal clouds of gas and dust out of which the stars formed. Close-up studies of clusters like this help astronomers understand the histories of distant galaxies and the yet larger clusters spawned by galaxy collisions. Robert O’Connell of the Astronomy Department is Chair of the Scientific Oversight Committee for the new HST camera. Click here for more details, and a larger version of the image.