Hubble Image of M13’s Nucleus

Hubble catches an instantaneous glimpse of many hundreds of thousands of stars moving about in the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest and best-known globular clusters in the northern sky. This glittering metropolis of stars is easily found in the winter sky in the constellation Hercules. This image is a composite of archival Hubble data taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Observations from four separate science proposals taken in November 1999, April 2000, August 2005, and April 2006 were used. The image includes broadband filters that isolate light from the blue, visible, and infrared portions of the spectrum.

About the colours

The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the ACS and WFPC2 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: ACS/WFC F435W (B), Green: ACS/WFC F555W (V) Red: ACS/WFC F814W (I) Cyan/blue: WFPC2 F555W (V), Yellow/orange: WFPC2 F785LP (I) + WFPC2 F814W (I)

About the data

HST Proposal: 8174 Science Team: W. van Altena (Yale University) HST Proposal: 8278 Science Team: C. Bailyn (Yale University) HST Proposal: 10349 Science Team: W. Lewin (MIT) A. Sarajedini HST Proposal: 10775 Science Team: A. Sarajedini (University of Florida)