Terzan 1 is a globular cluster located about 22,000 light years from Earth in the constellation
The globular cluster Terzan 1 in a Hubble image published in 2022. Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen
It is believed that Terzan 1 is the closest ballcluster towards the Milky Way, the distance from it to the center of our Galaxy is only 4,200 light years. Objects like Terzan 1 are widespread in the Universe.
These are star clusters containing a large numberstars tightly bound by gravity and orbiting the galactic center as a satellite. Such objects can be several hundred light years in diameter. Each galaxy is thought to have many globular clusters. Some, such as the Milky Way, have several hundred, while giant elliptical galaxies can have several thousand.
Unlike open globular clusters,which are located in the disk of galaxies, spherical - are located in the halo surrounding them. They contain some of the oldest stars in galaxies. The age of the stars in a globular cluster shows that they formed during the early stages of galaxy formation.
Interestingly, 11 globular clusters discoveredTerzan are numbered in order from Terzan 1 to Terzan 12. This is due to a mistake made by a scientist in 1971 when he rediscovered Terzan 5 - a cluster that was discovered back in 1968 - and named it Terzan 11.
The globular cluster Terzan 1 in the first Hubble image published in 2015. Image: NASA & ESA
The new image is not the first photo of the Terzan 1 cluster,made by Hubble. Back in 2015, the ESA published an image taken by the Hubble Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The new image was obtained by the third version of the camera, which was installed during preventive maintenance of the telescope.
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