Messier 80

Image Credit: ESA, NASA

This stellar swarm is M80, one of the densest of the approximately 150 known globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. Located about 28,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius, the cluster contains hundreds of thousands of stars that are held together by their mutual gravitational attraction. M80 has an apparent magnitude of 7.9 and was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. It can be spotted with a small telescope most easily during July.

M80 is notable for being the site of a nova in the year 1860. Nova outbursts can occur when a close companion star transfers fresh hydrogen fuel to a burned-out white dwarf. Eventually the hydrogen ignites a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of the white dwarf, giving rise to the nova outburst. Hubble’s ultraviolet observations of M80 helped astronomers identify the hot, faint remnant of the nova-producing white dwarf.  

Hubble’s examination of M80’s core has also revealed a large population of blue stragglers – stars that appear to be unusually young and more massive than the other stars in a globular cluster. M80 contains more than twice as many of these unusual stars than any other globular cluster surveyed by Hubble.

Image Credit: Image Courtesy of Stellarium

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