This cool space wallpaper from the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory shows the remarkable super star cluster Westerlund 1. This exceptionally bright cluster lies in the southern constellation of Ara (The Altar). It contains hundreds of very massive and brilliant stars, all of which are just a few million years old — babies by stellar standards. But our view of this cluster is hampered by gas and dust that prevents most of the visible light from the cluster's stars from getting to Earth. This image was released Oct. 14, 2013.
More about astronomy
LATEST ARTICLES