(click on image to enlarge)
From NASA/ ESA, July 27, 2020: Looking its best ever is the star cluster NGC 2203, here imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Aside from its dazzling good looks, this cluster of stars contains lots
of astronomical treats that have helped astronomers puzzle together the
lifetimes of stars.
A main sequence star, like our Sun, is the term applied to a
star during the longest period of its life, when it burns fuel
steadily. Our Sun’s fuel will run out in approximately 6 billion years,
and it will then move on to the next stage of its life when it will turn
into a red giant. Astronomers studying NGC 2203, which contains stars
that are roughly twice as massive as our Sun, found that their rotation
might be a factor as to why some of the stars stay longer than usual in
this main-sequence phase of their life.
This is the best resolution obtained of the star cluster to date.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Girardi
