Image 5-18
Globular Cluster NGC 2808

This Hubble telescope image of a dense swarm of stars shows the central region of the globular cluster NGC 2808. Globular clusters were born during our galaxy's formation. They are compact swarms containing hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravity. All the stars in NGC 2808 were born within 200 million years very early in the life of the 12.5-billion-year-old massive cluster. Of the about 150 known globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 2808 is one of the most massive, containing more than 1 million stars. It is located about 32,000 light-years from Earth.