14 DAY TRIAL // For those of you who haven't quite figured it out just yet – although the lights, the music and the presents rush should have tipped you off by now – the holidays are coming. That's right, yet another season of Christmas carols and tons of mouthwatering treats are upon us.
It just so happens that, luckily for us, astronomers with the European Space Agency are no strangers to the holiday spirit. In fact, it was earlier this week that they saw fit to try and help us get into the Christmas mood by releasing a positively stunning image of a cosmic snow globe.
Not an actual snow globe, though that would've been really cool
Let's face it, learning that a freakishly oversized snow globe is now aimlessly wandering through space would be nothing short of amazing. Not to burst your bubble or anything of the sorts, but the fact of the matter is that no such cosmic globe really exists.
Thus, the image that scientists with the European Space Agency were courteous enough to share with us mere mortals just in time for this year's holiday season actually shows the core of Messier 92, which is one of the brightest and the oldest star clusters in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
The image in question, included in the gallery below, was obtained with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. In the description accompanying the image, astronomers detail that this one picture was taken in optical and infrared wavelengths.
Mind you, Messier 92 is one seriously cool star cluster
As mentioned, Messier 92 is among the oldest and the brightest star clusters that our home galaxy the Milky Way currently accommodates for. Astronomers say that it sits in the northern constellation of Hercules at a distance of about 26,700 light-years from our planet.
Researchers with the European Space Agency add that, like plenty of other star clusters, Messier 92 is shaped like a ball. Thus, it comprises about 330,000 stars that are concentrated in a globe-like system. For this reason, Messier 92 is referred to as a globular star cluster.
Interestingly enough, investigations carried out over the years have shown that, unlike other celestial systems of this kind, this globular star cluster located not all that far from our planet lacks elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Hence, it's sometimes referred to as being metal poor.
Having found that Messier 92 is deficient in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, astronomers concluded that this globular star cluster might be about as old as the cosmos itself. This is because, the more they age, the more metal-poor clusters become.
“In astronomy terminology, 'metal poor' means that this cluster is deficient in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The observed metallicity of globular clusters can provide clues as to their evolution and provide measurements of their age.”
“As it turns out, Messier 92 is known to be one of the oldest globular clusters in our galaxy, corresponding to an age almost as old as the universe,” researchers with the European Space Agency explain.
