Astronomers preserved some of their oldest stars to ancient star groups such as NGC 1786 “Time Capsules” for their galaxy. A new image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope provides an unprecedented cluster of this dense cluster 160,000 light-year in the large Magalanic Cloud. Hubble figures suggest that NGC 1786 involves different -age stars – a stunning discovery, as such groups were once thought to keep a staller generation. This multi-age discovery is re-designing our view of how the galaxies built their first stars, and suggested more complex early history.
Age stars mixed in a galactic time capsule
According to the official formula, this Hubble image shows a ball of densely packed stars in a large Magalanic cloud of about 160,000 light-year from Earth, a ball, circular cluster NGC 1786. Astronomers captured this picture as part of a program, in which ancient groups were compared to the nearby dwarf galaxies (like LMC) with groups in our own Milky Way. The amazing discovery is that NGC 1786 hosts stars of many ages. In fact, astronomers expected all stars to be formed at the same time in such clusters, so it was unexpected to find many stellar generations. This shows that other galaxies have more complex, layered history than scientists in ancient groups.
Clues for galaxy development
For astronomers, the search provides clues for the formation of galaxies. Each spherical cluster is like a snapshot of its galaxy past, so finding many stellar generations means that the large Magalanic cloud made its stars in stages instead of all at once. Comparing NGC 1786 with a cluster in Milky Way, researchers said how the two galaxies gathered their oldest stars. As a scientist of NASA, this study can “tell us not only how LMC was originally made, but also Milky Way Galaxy, too”. Overall, the search supports a picture of gradual galactic development through several waves of star formation and merger rather than a single early burst.
