Enrique Boeneker<p>How do we know that globular star clusters are the oldest structures of our universe? The answer is surprisingly fascinating.</p><p>Picture number 1 is my latest capture of the largest known globular cluster in the Northern Hemisphere: M13, which I believe contains approximately half a million stars.</p><p>Picture number 2 features pictures of 0.9 m Kitt Peak's Observatory telescope, together with images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of another glob cluster: M4.</p><p>Well, it turns out that the HST could resolve, after many hours of exposures, the white dwarfs within the latter cluster. Not only that, but it could also analyze them using a technique known as spectroscopy, and determine in this way that these stars are approximately 12 to 13 billion years old.</p><p>This is not only useful for determining the cluster's age, but also for pinpointing the age of the entire universe. So, these tiny "insignificant" star remnants did us a big favor.</p><p><a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/astrophysics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>astrophysics</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/stars" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stars</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/cluster" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cluster</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/outdoors" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>outdoors</span></a> <a href="https://astrodon.social/tags/nightsky" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nightsky</span></a></p>