Hubble captures globular cluster NGC 2031

Within the prime left nook of this starry sight, the globular cluster NGC 2031 shines brilliantly. This dense group of 1000’s of stars is held collectively in a spherical form by its stars’ mutual gravitational attraction. The cluster is positioned within the constellation Mensa within the Massive Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way with many star-forming areas. It’s seen from Earth’s southern hemisphere.

NGC 2031 comprises a large inhabitants of Cepheid variable stars (at the least 14), that are stars that brighten and dim periodically. A Cepheid’s interval between peak brightness, mixed with measurements of brightness and a few observations taken from Earth, will help astronomers decide the star’s distance from us. Utilizing these measurements, scientists estimate the gap of NGC 2031 as roughly 150,000 light-years from Earth.

The NGC 2031 cluster lives in an especially dense and starry area of the LMC. Its location on this crowded space ends in “stellar contamination,” a phenomenon the place the atmospheres and floor options of close by stars have an effect on the measurements of objects beneath research.

Stellar contamination is one principle that would clarify observations of brilliant blue stars within the cluster heart. Stars like these sometimes burn extremely popular and have quick lifespans, however globular clusters are recognized for housing solely historic stars. One other principle is that these brilliant blue stars are in reality blue stragglers, a kind of star that varieties later than its neighbors, enabling astronomers to watch them in older globular clusters corresponding to NGC 2031. Blue stragglers are thought to kind from the merging of two previous, purple stars, leading to a star with higher mass and due to this fact bluer coloration—a principle developed with Hubble’s assist from imaging one other globular cluster, 47 Tucanae.

NGC 2031 is estimated to be 140 million years previous and has a mass greater than 3,000 occasions that of our sun. Astronomers studied this cluster utilizing Hubble’s ultraviolet capabilities.