Black holes
Globular Cluster Messier 4 (M4)
May 23, 2023 · NASA · M 4, Messier 4, NGC 6121 · Scorpius
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A Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular star cluster, Messier 4. The cluster is a dense collection of several hundred thousand stars. Astronomers suspect that an intermediate-mass black hole, weighing as much as 800 times the mass of our Sun, is lurking, unseen, at its core.
About the colours
These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample wide and narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F435W, Green: F606W, Red: F814W
About the data
The HST observations include those from program 10775 (A. Sarajedini)
