By spying on a neighboring galaxy, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
has captured an image of a young, globular-like star cluster—a
type of object unknown in our Milky Way Galaxy. The image, taken
by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http
://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2001/25/image/a/.
The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The double cluster NGC 1850 lies in
a neighboring satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. It
has two relatively young components. The main, globular-like
cluster is in the center. A smaller cluster is seen below and to
the right, composed of extremely hot, blue stars and fainter red
T-Tauri stars. The main cluster is about 50 million years old;
the smaller one is 4 million years old. A filigree pattern of
diffuse gas surrounds NGC 1850. Scientists believe the pattern
formed millions of years ago when massive stars in the main
cluster exploded as supernovas. Hubble can observe a range of
star types in N