Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 December 28 [2]The ball of colorful stars is shown where the center is so dense with stars it is hard to identify individual stars. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. NGC 1898: Globular Cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud Image Credit: [3]ESA/[4]Hubble & [5]NASA Explanation: Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do. And almost every spot in this jewel-box of an image from the [6]Hubble Space Telescope is a star. Now, some stars are more red than our [7]Sun, and some more blue -- but all of them are much farther away. Although it takes light about 8 minutes to reach [8]Earth from the Sun, NGC 1898 is so far away that it takes light about 160,000 [9]years to get here. This [10]huge ball of stars, NGC 1898, is called a [11]globular cluster and resides in the [12]central bar of the [13]Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) -- a [14]satellite galaxy of our [15]Milky Way Galaxy. The [16]featured multi-colored image includes light from the [17]infrared to the [18]ultraviolet and was taken to help determine if the [19]stars of NGC 1898 all formed at the same time or at different times. There are increasing indications that most [20]globular clusters formed stars in stages, and that, in particular, [21]stars from NGC 1898 formed shortly after [22]ancient encounters with the [23]Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and our Milky Way Galaxy. Space Telescopes Live: [24]Where are Hubble and Webb looking right now? Tomorrow's picture: boom star __________________________________________________________________ [25]< | [26]Archive | [27]Submissions | [28]Index | [29]Search | [30]Calendar | [31]RSS | [32]Education | [33]About APOD | [34]Discuss | [35]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [36]Robert Nemiroff ([37]MTU) & [38]Jerry Bonnell ([39]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [40]Specific rights apply. [41]NASA Web Privacy, [42]Accessibility, [43]Notices; A service of: [44]ASD at [45]NASA / [46]GSFC, [47]NASA Science Activation & [48]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2512/NGC1898_Hubble_2913.jpg 3. http://www.esa.int/ 4. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html 5. https://www.nasa.gov/ 6. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/overview/about-hubble/ 7. https://science.nasa.gov/sun/ 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220206.html 9. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 10. https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1840a/zoomable/ 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globular_cluster 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180516.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180428.html 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_galaxies_of_the_Milky_Way#List 15. http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/milkyway.html 16. https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1840a/ 17. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/07_infraredwaves 18. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves 19. https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=13435 20. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012A&ARv..20...50G/abstract 21. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MNRAS.426.1884C/abstract 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160725.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100903.html 24. http://spacetelescopelive.org/ 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251227.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 31. https://apod.com/feed.rss 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 34. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=251228 35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251229.html 36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 38. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 39. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 41. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 42. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 43. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 44. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 45. https://www.nasa.gov/ 46. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 47. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 48. http://www.mtu.edu/