Hubble image archive
Hot White Dwarf Shines in Young Star Cluster NGC 1818
A dazzling "jewel-box" collection of over 20,000 stars can be seen in crystal clarity in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The young (40 million year old) cluster, called NGC 1818, is 164,000 light-years away in the Large Ma...
- Date
- Jan 1, 1998
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-1998-16-654-image
A dazzling "jewel-box" collection of over 20,000 stars can be seen in crystal clarity in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The young (40 million year old) cluster, called NGC 1818, is 164,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The LMC, a site of vigorous current star formation, is an ideal nearby laboratory for studying stellar evolution.
In the cluster, astronomers have found a young white dwarf star, which has only very recently formed following the burnout of a red giant. Based on this observation astronomers conclude that the red giant progenitor star was 7.6 times the mass of our Sun. Previously, astronomers have estimated that stars anywhere from 6 to 10 solar masses would not just quietly fade away as white dwarfs but abruptly self-destruct in torrential explosions.
Hubble can easily resolve the star in the crowded cluster, and detect its intense blue-white glow from a sizzling surface temperature of 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Credits
Rebecca Elson and Richard Sword, Cambridge UK, and NASA (Original WFPC2 image courtesy J. Westphal, Caltech)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1818 |
| Object Description | Rich star cluster |
| R.A. Position | 05h 4m 13.99s |
| Dec. Position | -66° 26' 6.0" |
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Distance | 164,000 light-years |
| Dimensions | Diameter: 7 arc minutes. Magnitude: 9.7 |
| About The Data | |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | December 1995 |
| Filters | Filters (I,B,U) |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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