HST Update
October 29, 1997:

Hubble Catches Up with a Blue Straggler Star

October 29, 1997
Space Telescope Science Institute

Astronomers have long been mystified by observations of a few hot, bright, apparently young stars residing in well-established neighborhoods where most of their neighbors are much older. It's like finding teen-agers hanging out in stellar retirement homes.

With the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now have evidence that may eventually help solve the 45-year-old mystery of how these enigmatic stars, called blue stragglers, were formed. For the first time, astronomers have confirmed that a blue straggler in the core of a globular cluster (a very dense community of stars) is a massive, rapidly rotating star that is spinning 75 times faster than the Sun. This finding provides proof that blue stragglers are created by collisions or other intimate encounters in an overcrowded cluster core.

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