Hubble image archive
White Dwarfs Migrating from Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae's Core
The heart of the giant globular star cluster 47 Tucanae in the Hubble Space Telescope image at left reveals the glow of 200,000 stars. The green box outlines the cluster's crowded core, where Hubble spied a parade of young white dwarfs starting their slow-paced 40-million-year jo...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2015
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2015-16-3540-image
The heart of the giant globular star cluster 47 Tucanae in the Hubble Space Telescope image at left reveals the glow of 200,000 stars. The green box outlines the cluster's crowded core, where Hubble spied a parade of young white dwarfs starting their slow-paced 40-million-year journey to the less populated suburbs.
White dwarfs are the burned-out relics of stars that rapidly lose mass, cool down, and shut off their nuclear furnaces. As these glowing carcasses age and shed weight, their orbits begin to expand outward from the cluster's packed downtown. This migration is caused by a gravitational tussle among stars in the cluster.
The stellar relics are too faint to be seen clearly in visible light, as shown in the Hubble image at top right. But in ultraviolet light the stars glow brightly because they are extremely hot, as shown in the image at bottom right, taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. The green circles in the image outline the brightest of the young white dwarfs spied by Hubble.
Astronomers used Hubble to analyze 3,000 white dwarfs in the cluster, located 16,700 light-years away in our Milky Way galaxy's southern constellation of Tucana. Until these Hubble observations, astronomers had never seen the dynamical conveyor belt in action. The Wide Field Camera 3 observations were taken between November 2012 and December 2013. The left-hand image and the image at top right are a blend of exposures taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and H. Richer and J. Heyl (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada);Acknowledgment: J. Mack (STScI) and G. Piotto (University of Padova, Italy)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | 47 Tuc, 47 Tucanae, NGC 104 |
| Object Description | Globular Cluster |
| R.A. Position | 00h 24m 5.35s |
| Dec. Position | -72° 4' 53.17" |
| Constellation | Tucana |
| Distance | 16,700 light-years (5,100 parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The optical/UV image of 47 Tuc was created from Hubble data from proposal , PI: J. Mack and R. Gillian (STScI) and 12311, PI: G. Piotto (University of Padova, Italy) et al. The UV image of 47 Tuc was created from Hubble data from proposal : H. Richer (University of British Columbia), A. Dotter (Australian National University), R. Goldsbury (University of British Columbia), B. Hansen (UCLA), J. Heyl (University of British Columbia), J. Kalirai (STScI/JHU), K. Woodley (University of British Columbia), and K. Sigurdson (University of California, Santa Cruz). The science team includes: J. Heyl and H. Richer (University of British Columbia), E. Antolini (Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy), R. Goldsbury (University of British Columbia), J. Kalirai (STScI/JHU), J. Parada (University of British Columbia), and P.-E. Tremblay (STScI). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | November 2003 - September 2004, November 2010, and November 2012 - September 2013 |
| Filters | Left and Top Right Panels: ACS/WFC: F475W (B), F606W (V), F814W (I) WFC3: F275W (UV) Bottom Right Panel: WFC3: F225W (UV) and F336W (U) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Left and Top Right Panels: This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC and WFC3 instruments. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F475W (B) Green: F606W (V) Red: F814W (I) Purple: F275W (UV) Bottom Right Panel: This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F225W (UV) Yellow: F336W (U) |
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