NASA has just released a close-up image of the globular cluster NGC 2005, which the agency describes as the “fossil of the universe.”
The image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s most successful cosmic explorer, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).
“Fossil of the Universe” NGC 2005 – (Image: NASA).
While NGC 2005 is not an unusual globular cluster, it becomes special when compared to its surroundings.
NGC 2005 is located in the galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), approximately 750 light-years from the central region.
The LMC is the largest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our Earth.
Globular clusters are dense groups of stars that can contain tens of thousands or even millions of stars, tightly bound by gravity and thus very stable.
This stability contributes to their longevity: globular clusters can be billions of years old and often contain very old stars. Therefore, studying globular clusters in space can be akin to studying fossils on Earth.
Fossils on Earth provide insights into the characteristics of ancient plants and animals, while globular clusters shed light on the features of ancient stars.
Current theories of galaxy evolution predict that galaxies will merge during their development.
In this context, the Milky Way—a colossal entity in the galaxy world—has consumed around 20 other galaxies to achieve its massive size today.
The LMC is much smaller than the Milky Way, yet the globular cluster that Hubble recently photographed serves as evidence that it was once a giant as well.
NGC 2005 stands out from its surroundings because its stars have a different chemical composition than the stars around them. This indicates that NGC 2005 originally did not belong to the LMC but was part of an ancient galaxy that was absorbed by the LMC.
“That galaxy merged long ago and has dispersed, but NGC 2005 remains as an ancient witness to the merger,” NASA stated.
