Hubble Space Telescope photo shows star-studded globular cluster near Milky Way's core

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a star-studded cluster in the constellation Sagittarius.

This stellar grouping, known as globular cluster NGC 6540,

shines brightly with ​​tens of thousands to millions of stars tightly bound together by gravity.

The new image was created using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 and

Advanced Camera for Surveys, according to an Aug. 15 statement from the European Space Agency (ESA), a partner on the mission.

"The brightest stars in this image are adorned with prominent cross-shaped patterns of light known as diffraction spikes,"

ESA officials wrote in the statement. "These astronomical embellishments are a type of imaging artifact,

meaning that they are caused by the structure of Hubble rather than the stars themselves.

The path taken by the starlight as it enters the telescope is slightly

disturbed by its internal structure, causing bright objects to be surrounded by spikes of light."

Juno spacecraft - Mission to Jupiter - NASA

Visit other story