White Dwarf Stars in M4

A Hubble Space Telescope colour image of a small portion of the cluster only 0.63 light-years across reveals eight white dwarf stars among the cluster's much brighter population of yellow sun-like stars and cooler red dwarf stars.

Hubble reveals a total of 75 white dwarfs in one small area within M4, out of the total of about 40, 000 white dwarfs that the cluster is predicted to contain.

Credit:

Harvey Richer (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) and NASA/ESA

About the Image

NASA press release
Id:opo9532c
Type:Observation
Release date:28 August 1995, 06:00
Size:408 x 457 px

About the Object

Name:M 4, Messier 4, NGC 6121
Type:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Distance:5500 light years
Constellation:Scorpius
Category:Star Clusters

Image Formats

r.titleLarge JPEG
104.1 KB
r.titleScreensize JPEG
295.0 KB

Coordinates

Position (RA):16 23 40.48
Position (Dec):-26° 30' 43.77"
Field of view:0.31 x 0.35 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 35.1° left of vertical


Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Ultraviolet
U
336 nm Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2
Optical
V
555 nm Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2
Infrared
I
814 nm Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2

Also see our


Privacy policy Accelerated by CDN77