Our universe is speckled with stars, with billions just in our galaxy. Some stars live alone or in twos or threes, but others are bound together by gravity into much larger communities. In honor of @NASAHubble’s exploration of #StarrySights, let’s talk about star clusters! 🧵 1/6 This image is a multiwavele...
Star clusters are divided into a few different types, based on how many stars are in a cluster and how tightly they’re bound by gravity. Stars in clusters typically have a shared origin, and they can live very close together or can be spread out over hundreds of light-years. 2/6 Two types of star clusters ...
Globular clusters are stellar "dinosaurs" scattered throughout the universe, containing some of the oldest stars in the universe. These clusters can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of stars, packed tightly together in a dense clump. 3/6 In this image of globular c...
Open clusters have fewer members, usually a few hundred stars or less. Most open clusters are much younger than globular clusters, and they’re also much less dense and less tightly bound than globular clusters. 4/6 This composite image shows ...
Scientists are interested in how star clusters form and evolve. Some disperse and spread out over time, while others remain tightly bound together by gravity. The different types of stars in clusters also have various life spans, so they change and die off as a cluster ages. 5/6 This infrared image from NA...
Many different @NASA observatories study star clusters using different types of light. Alongside @NASAHubble, we’ll be highlighting how some of our other telescopes help us learn about these stellar communities! 6/6 This infrared image of a se...

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More from @NASAUniverse

Nov 25
Are you enjoying our #BlackHoleFriday coverage? Like listening to podcasts? Then grab your headphones and dive into the black-hole-themed podcasts we’ve curated in this thread! 🎧 #BlackHoleFriday
The Small Steps, Giant Leaps podcast interviewed Fiona Harrison, the NuSTAR PI, for the X-ray telescope’s 10th anniversary. She talks about its biggest black hole findings and other cool things we’ve learned over the past decade: go.nasa.gov/3u1B4wo #BlackHoleFriday Cartoon drawing of the Moon...
Gravity Assist was the perfect podcast for Jeremy Schnittman to talk about black holes because they’re all about gravity! 🎧 Get some black hole basics and find out what Jeremy hopes we’ll discover someday: go.nasa.gov/3EBoV6f #BlackHoleFriday A photo of Jeremy Schnittma...
Read 4 tweets
Jun 10
This week in 2008, our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope launched. Since then it has been our eyes on the gamma-ray sky! Follow this thread for some science highlights, and read more about Fermi and gamma rays in this Tumblr post: tmblr.co/Zz_Uqj2TjyFug #FermiFriday
Some of the universe’s brightest sources of light are black holes in the centers of galaxies! Black holes can turn galaxies into cosmic flashlights, and our Fermi telescope is helping us learn more about them: tmblr.co/Zz_Uqj2VhC7pa
Did you know our Milky Way galaxy is blowing bubbles? Two of them, each 25,000 light-years tall! They extend above and below the disk of the galaxy, like the two halves of an hourglass. We can’t see them, but our Fermi telescope can, in gamma-ray light: tmblr.co/Zz_Uqj2dMNkMX This is an image of the Fer...
Read 5 tweets
May 2
Just because black holes don’t emit light doesn’t mean they’re totally invisible to us. By studying hints that point to their existence, we can learn a lot about them! Follow this thread and read more here: tmblr.co/Zz_UqjZ-7BiySm… #BlackHoleWeek⚫ 1/6
One thing black holes can’t hide is their gravity. They affect their environment just like anything else in the universe that has mass. 2/6
For decades, scientists have tracked stars orbiting the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Using those observations, they’ve estimated the black hole holds 4 million times the mass of our Sun! 3/6
Read 6 tweets
May 2
Want to get up to speed on black holes? We’ve got you covered! A black hole is an object so dense that not even light can escape it. #BlackHoleWeek⚫ 1/6 go.nasa.gov/3OOqRNd Using the Event Horizon Telescope, scientists obtained an im
A black hole’s “surface” is its event horizon. Inside this boundary you’d have to go faster than light, the fastest thing in the universe, to escape the black hole. 2/6
The two main types of black holes that have been extensively observed are stellar-mass and supermassive. The type depends on how much stuff is crammed inside. Tens of times our Sun’s mass for a stellar-mass one; millions to billions for a supermassive one! 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Oct 26, 2021
Our Swift satellite just detected its 1,500th gamma-ray burst! 🛰💥 This powerful explosion was observed on Oct. 23 in the constellation Ursa Major. To celebrate, let’s explore 3 other extra-special Swift observations from over 16 years of science. 🥳
Soon after launch, Swift was the first to spy a short gamma-ray burst with an afterglow — GRB 050509B lasted only 0.03 seconds! ⏱ Other telescopes followed up to continue the hunt for the cause of these bursts, later confirmed to be neutron star mergers. go.nasa.gov/2ZruPGO
Nearly all gamma-ray bursts have to be observed with telescopes. But in 2008, Swift caught a burst so powerful that its afterglow was briefly visible without any magnification. GRB 080319B may be the most distant object visible to unaided eyes! 👁 More: go.nasa.gov/3mePTIY The extremely luminous afterglow of GRB 080319B was imaged b
Read 4 tweets
Oct 13, 2020
The Burst Alert Telescope, or BAT, on our Swift satellite just surpassed 1 million triggers! 🎉 The BAT constantly watches for gamma-ray bursts — powerful but fleeting explosions signaling a black hole’s birth. 💥 Get up to speed on gamma-ray bursts here: tmblr.co/Zz_Uqj2aNmOwb
☑️ The BAT’s onboard algorithms review each trigger to see if it’s a cosmic source or a statistical fluctuation. In sifting through those many triggers, Swift’s BAT has detected about 1,400 bona fide bursts along with a number of other notable discoveries.
👀 Let’s look at some. A map of with the areas Swift has detected 1000 gamma-ray bu
The initial flash in some gamma-ray bursts lasts less than two seconds, making it hard to lock on to them for follow-up observations. ⏱️ Swift was designed to do just that and pinpointed its first “short” gamma-ray burst afterglow in May 2005. Learn more: go.nasa.gov/371jmip
Read 7 tweets

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