Thursday, June 4, 2026

The Unexpected Brightness 'Gap' in an Ancient Globular Cluster

This is NGC 6397, one of the closest globular clusters (GCs) to the Milky Way. Astronomers found an M-dwarf brightness gap in the cluster. While the same gap has been detected elsewhere, this is the first time it's been detected in a GC. Image Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Scientists using the Euclid space telescope found a red-dwarf brightness “gap” in the population of a globular cluster—an ancient, crowded collection of stars. A similar gap was detected by the Gaia observatory in nearby stellar populations, but it has never before been seen in a globular cluster.



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