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Space
Space
Science
Samantha Mathewson

Glittering star cluster image reveals missing patch of stars: 'We were not looking for the gap, but we found it'

A glittering bundle of stars against the darkness of space.

A gorgeous new portrait of an ancient star cluster reveals an unexpected imperfection: a visible gap in the brightness of its stars.

The stunning image, taken by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope, captures NGC 6397 — one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. NGC 6397 is a glittering swarm of hundreds of thousands of stars packed tightly together, but when astronomers took a closer look, they discovered something unusual hidden within the sparkles.

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