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Terzan 12

This image shows a compact beehive-like structure of hundreds of thousands of stars crowded together. Because of scattering by interstellar dust, the stars on the left side of the image appear redder. The stars toward the right side of the image are bluish-white. The image is sprinkled with bright blue foreground stars. There is also a smattering of bright red giant stars across the image.

This colorful image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 is a spectacular example of how dust in space affects starlight coming from background objects.

A globular star cluster is a conglomeration of stars, arranged in a spheroidal shape. Stars in globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards the center. The Milky Way has about 150 ancient globular clusters at its outskirts. These clusters orbit around the galactic center, but far above and below the pancake-flat plane of our galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive.

The location of this globular cluster, deep in the Milky Way in the constellation Sagittarius, means that it is shrouded in gas and dust which absorb and alter the starlight emanating from Terzan 12. The cluster is about 15,000 light-years from Earth. This location leaves a lot of room for intervening interstellar dust particles between us and the cluster to scatter blue light, causing only the redder wavelengths to come through to Earth. The interstellar dust clouds are mottled so that different parts of the cluster look redder than other parts along our line of sight.

The brightest red stars in the photo are bloated, aging giants, many times larger than our Sun. They lie between Earth and the cluster. Only a few may actually be members of the cluster. The very brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which only contains aging stars.

Terzan 12 is one of 11 globular clusters discovered by the Turkish-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan approximately a half-century ago. With its sharp vision, Hubble has revolutionized the study of globular clusters ever since its launch in 1990. Hubble observations have shed light on the relation between age and composition in the Milky Way galaxy's innermost globular clusters.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    18:12:15.80
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -22:44:31.00
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Sagittarius
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    15,000 light-years

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The HST observations include those from program: 14074 (R. Cohen)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    8 August 2016, 13 August 2016
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F606W, F110W, F160W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Terzan 12
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Globular cluster
  • Release Date
    September 7, 2023
  • Science Release
    Hubble Sees a Glittering Globular Cluster Embedded Inside Our Milky Way
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (Rutgers University)

Downloads

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  • 1807 × 2000
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This image shows a compact beehive-like structure of hundreds of thousands of stars crowded together. Because of scattering by interstellar dust, the stars on the left side of the image appear redder. The stars toward the right side of the image are bluish-white. The image is sprinkled with bright blue foreground stars. There is also a smattering of bright red giant stars across the image.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the The Hubble Space Telescope using the ACS/WFC and UVIS/IR instruments. Several filters were used to sample wide wavelength ranges. 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: F606W, Green: F110W, Red: F160W

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

At the top of this mosaic image is a diagonal section of our Milky Way as seen in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Pitch-black filaments of interstellar dust are etched across a whitish background of myriad stars. A smaller portion of the Milky Way is at lower left. It is filled with stars and also a mottled pattern of black clouds of dust. The embedded globular star cluster Terzan 12 is in the middle of the box at image center. At image right is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the dense star-filled globular cluster. Intervening dust scatters starlight to create multiple reddish hues. The brightest red stars in the photo are bloated, aging giants, many times larger than our Sun. They lie between Earth and the cluster. The very brightest hot, blue stars are also along the line of sight and not inside the cluster, which only contains aging stars. The cluster is about 15,000 light-years from Earth.

Terzan 12 Context Image

This composite image shows the location of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. [Top Frame]—A view of a section of our Milky Way in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Dense clouds of dust are etched across a whitish background...

Image titled "Terzan 12 HST ACS & WFC3" with compass arrows, and color key. The image shows a compact beehive-like structure of hundreds of thousands of stars crowded together. Because of scattering by interstellar dust, stars on the left side of the image appear redder. Stars toward the right side of the image are bluish-white. The image is sprinkled with bright blue foreground stars. There's also a smattering of bright red giant stars across the image. At left, near the top of the image is a color key showing the ACS/WFC and WFC3 UVIS/IR instrument filters used to create the image. The assigned colors are blue: F606W; green: F110W; and red: F160W. At lower right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 10 o'clock; the north arrow points towards 2 o'clock.

Terzan 12 Compass Image

This is Hubble Space Telescope's colorful view of globular star cluster Terzan 12. It is a compact beehive-like structure of hundreds of thousands of stars crowded together. Because of scattering by interstellar dust, the stars on the left side of the image appear redder. The...

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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