STUNNING Star cluster captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a globular star cluster NGC 6638. The James Webb Space Telescope has taken all the limelight these past few weeks with its stunning discoveries within the first month of launch.

However, this image captured by the outgoing Hubble Space Telescope has once again surprised the world with the telescope’s capabilities despite being nearly 3 decades old. The image was released on August 1 by NASA and the ESA who co-manage the Hubble Space Telescope.

The globular star cluster NGC 6638 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is a a star cluster in the constellation Sagittarius. The observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys were recorded and then created into an image.

According to space.com, before the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, it was almost impossible to observe far-off star clusters by the telescopes present on Earth due to the presence of atmosphere around the Earth which sometimes distorted the view. However, since the launch of Hubble in 1990, it has become relatively very easy to observe distant stars due to the Hubble telescope orbiting the Earth about 340 miles from the surface of the planet. This close proximity to Earth also allows astronauts to physically perform repairs on the telescope.

In contrast, the brand-new James Webb Space Telescope orbits the Sun nearly 1 million miles away from Earth, operating in the infrared spectrum of light. As of now, scientists use the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope in conjunction to observe and study distant planets, galaxies, star clusters and other mysteries of space.