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Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 1898: Globular Cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud
NASA ^ | 28 Dec, 2025 | Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Posted on 12/28/2025 12:30:05 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do. And almost every spot in this jewel-box of an image from the Hubble Space Telescope is a star. Now, some stars are more red than our Sun, and some more blue -- but all of them are much farther away. Although it takes light about 8 minutes to reach Earth from the Sun, NGC 1898 is so far away that it takes light about 160,000 years to get here. This huge ball of stars, NGC 1898, is called a globular cluster and resides in the central bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) -- a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way Galaxy. The featured multi-colored image includes light from the infrared to the ultraviolet and was taken to help determine if the stars of NGC 1898 all formed at the same time or at different times. There are increasing indications that most globular clusters formed stars in stages, and that, in particular, stars from NGC 1898 formed shortly after ancient encounters with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and our Milky Way Galaxy.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 12/28/2025 12:30:05 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 12/28/2025 12:30:46 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 12/28/2025 12:31:34 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


4 posted on 12/28/2025 12:32:18 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


5 posted on 12/28/2025 12:32:18 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: MtnClimber

No forks in that cluster


6 posted on 12/28/2025 12:35:14 PM PST by ComputerGuy
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To: MtnClimber

That a lot of stars. /CaptainObvious


7 posted on 12/28/2025 1:08:19 PM PST by citizen (A transgender malel competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: MtnClimber

8 posted on 12/28/2025 1:09:14 PM PST by Diogenesis (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: MtnClimber
"NGC 1898 is so far away that it takes light about 160,000 years to get here."
Would take V-ger much longer.
9 posted on 12/28/2025 1:11:09 PM PST by citizen (A transgender malel competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: MtnClimber

Would make an awesome counter and backsplash for a hobby room wet-bar.


10 posted on 12/28/2025 1:22:21 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: MtnClimber

Globular clusters rule


11 posted on 12/28/2025 1:47:00 PM PST by NavyShoe
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To: MtnClimber

That’s a lot of stars! :)


12 posted on 12/28/2025 3:25:29 PM PST by xp38
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To: MtnClimber

If I may paraphrase Buzz Aldrin’s words when he was on the Moon and flip them, a”magnificent congestion”…

He looked out over the lunar landscape and proclaimed “a magnificent desolation “.


13 posted on 12/28/2025 5:17:02 PM PST by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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