Sunny Priyan
Liller 1 is only 30,000 light-years from Earth — relatively nearby in astronomical terms — but it lies within the Milky Way’s ‘bulge’, the dense and dusty region at our galaxy’s center.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro
Liller 1 hides behind interstellar dust that scatters blue light, but red and infrared rays reveal its glow.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro
WFC3’s sensitivity to visible and near-infrared light cuts through dust, revealing the spectacular view of Liller 1.
Image Credit: Pixabay
Liller 1 is a particularly interesting globular cluster, because unlike most of its kind, it contains a mix of very young and very old stars.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro
Liller 1 contains at least two distinct stellar populations with remarkably different ages: the oldest one is 12 billion years old and the youngest component is just 1-2 billion years old.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro
This led astronomers to conclude that this stellar system was able to form stars over an extraordinary long period of time.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro