City of Stars - 47 Tucanae (WFPC-2 Image)

This image shows the Hubble telescope's close-up look at a swarm of 35, 000 stars near the cluster's central region. The stars are tightly packed together: They are much closer together than our Sun and its closest stars.

The picture, taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 , depicts the stars' natural colours and tells scientists about their composition and age. For example, the red stars denote bright red giants nearing the end of their lives; the more common yellow stars are similar to our middle-aged Sun.