Globular Star Cluster NGC 6355 from Hubble
Globular clusters once ruled the
Milky Way.
Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed,
perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed
our Galaxy.
Today, there are less than 200 left.
Over the eons,
many globular clusters were destroyed by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the
Galactic center.
Surviving relics are older than any
Earth fossil,
older than any other structures in our Galaxy,
and limit the universe itself in raw age.
There are few, if any,
young globular clusters left in our
Milky Way Galaxy because
conditions are not ripe for more to form.
The featured image shows a Hubble Space Telescope view of 13-billion
year old
NGC 6355, a surviving globular cluster
currently passing near the
Milky Way's center.
Globular cluster stars are
concentrated toward the image center and
highlighted by bright blue stars.
Most other stars in the frame are dimmer, redder, and just coincidently
lie near the direction to
NGC 6355.