The Hubble Space Telescope was used to capture the details of of the Trumpler 14 open cluster. This is one of the largest groups of stars that are massive and as a consequence very bright in the Milky Way. It’s a young cluster in astronomical terms as its aged is about half a million years. It has a diameter of about six light years and within it about 2,000 stars of very diverse masses were identified.

The Trumpler 14 cluster is about 8,000 light years from Earth, in the inner part of the Carina Nebula. For its brilliance it was compared to a set of diamonds but astronomical observations not only offer spectacular images but also interesting information on the evolution of such clusters.

The concentration of gas existing in the Trumpler 14 cluster allowed the formation of many giant stars but this means that they will have a short life in astronomical terms. In a few million years, they’ll start exploding in supernovae and the shock waves that will follow will compress the gas that still exists. This could generate other stars and star systems, which will be enriched by the elements created in the current stars and in those supernovae.

Even now the clouds of gas within the Trumpler 14 cluster can be compressed by stellar winds usually generated by stars as massive as the existing ones. The biggest of all is HD 93129Aa, a star of class O, the one that includes the hottest and massive stars. With a mass about 80 times that of the Sun, it’s one of the biggest and brightest stars in the Milky Way and generates significant stellar winds together with the companion it forms a binary system with.

The image of the Trumpler 14 cluster was created by combining several photographs taken between 2005 and 2006 by the Hubble Space Telescope’s ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys) and WFC (Wide Field Camera) instruments. The result is one of the many spectacular images obtained thanks to this extraordinary telescope that allows astronomers to study these celestial bodies in details.

[ad name=”eBayUSUKAstronomy”]