NGC 6401

What was once only visible as a ghostly mist in the eyepieces of astronomical instruments has been transformed into a stunning stellar landscape by the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 6401 is a globular cluster, a very rich, and generally spherical, collection of stars. They orbit the cores of galaxies, with the force of gravity also keeping the stars bound as a group. There are approximately 150 globular clusters associated with our Milky Way, of which NGC 6401 is one. These objects are very old, containing some of the most ancient stars known. However, there are many mysteries surrounding them, with their origin and role within galaxy evolution not being completely understood.