Even though the world waits for the James Webb Space Telescope to replace Hubble, the good old telescope is still doing its job very well. NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) are planning to appoint the successor of the Hubble Telescope in 2021.
Hubble just took an amazing photo at the open cluster NGC 2203, which is located in the southern constellation of Mensa. Feel free to admire the cluster below:
Credits for the image: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Girardi
The NGC 2203 cluster is also located within the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way about 160,000 light-years away. The cluster measures around 31 light-years across. The Hubble astronomers released several statements:
Aside from its dazzling good looks, NGC 2203 contains lots of astronomical treats that have helped astronomers puzzle together the lifetimes of stars,” Hubble astronomers said.
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,
The Hubble Space Telescope was named after the great American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who revolutionized astronomy with his tremendous discoveries. About a century ago, Hubble discovered that there are numerous other galaxies in the Universe besides our own. Until that day, astronomers thought that there’s no other galaxy besides the Milky Way. By observing their movement and analyzing the Doppler effect, Hubble concluded that those galaxies are moving away from us, which leads to another huge discovery: the Universe is constantly expanding. The most widespread idea among astronomers was that the Universe is static, and even Albert Einstein made the biggest blunder from his career by claiming so.
The James Webb Space Telescope was supposed to launch in 2007, but let’s hope that it won’t be further delayed anymore.
