Madrid. The densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325 shines bright in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. It is about 26,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.
Globular clusters like NGC 6325 are tightly knit collections of stars with tens of thousands to millions of members. They can be found in all kinds of galaxies and act as natural laboratories for astronomers studying star formation. This is because the constituent stars of globular clusters tend to form at roughly the same time and with a similar initial composition, which means that astronomers can use them to refine their theories about how stars evolve.
Astronomers surveyed this particular cluster not to understand star formation, but to search for a hidden monster. Although it may appear peaceful, astronomers suspect that this cluster could contain an intermediate-mass black hole that is subtly affecting the motion of surrounding stars.
Previous research found that the distribution of stars in some highly concentrated globular clusters, those with stars relatively close together, was slightly different from what astronomers expected, NASA reports.
This discrepancy suggests that at least some of these densely packed globular clusters, including perhaps NGC 6325, could have a black hole lurking in the center.
To further explore this hypothesis, astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to observe a larger sample of densely packed globular clusters, which included this star-studded image of NGC 6325. Additional data from NGC 6325 was also incorporated into this image. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
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