Hubble Data Used to Look 10,000 Years into the Future

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

The multicolor snapshot, at top, taken with Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, captures the central region of the giant globular cluster Omega Centauri. All the stars in the image are moving in random directions, like a swarm of bees. Astronomers used Hubble's exquisite resolving power to measure positions for stars in 2002 and 2006.

From these measurements, they can predict the stars' future movement. The bottom illustration charts the future positions of the stars highlighted by the white box in the top image. Each streak represents the motion of the star over the next 600 years. The motion between dots corresponds to 30 years.

Object Names: Omega Centauri, NGC 5139, Omega Cen

Image Type: Astronomical/Illustration

Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Science Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Anderson and R. van der Marel (STScI)

NEWS RELEASE IMAGES

The above montage includes these images:

Omega Centauri - WFC3 Image Type: Astronomical Illustration of Future Positions of Stars in Omega Centauri Image Type: Illustration

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