The universe can be a lonely place, especially if you're an orphan star, have kicked out of your galaxy and left to wander the dark expanse of nothingness beyond.
But those orphan stars aren't really alone, like the new ones Euclid space telescope discovered 1,500 billion of them in the first scientific photographs taken during its mission.
The orphan stars, which emit a ghostly bluish light, were all seen wandering through the space between the stars Perseus cluster of galaxies.
The Perseus Cluster is located 240 million light-years from Earth – of which one light-year is about ten trillion kilometers – and is one of the most massive structures in the universe, with thousands of individual galaxies.
Stars form in interstellar molecular clouds in galaxies, Life begins as clumps of dust and gas.
Now giving off a bluish hue and arranged in clusters, astronomers at the University of Nottingham think the stars have either been torn from the outskirts of galaxies or are survivors of dwarf galaxies that have been completely disrupted.
Professor Nina Hatch, who led the project team, said: 'We were surprised by our ability to see so far into the outer regions of the cluster and distinguish the subtle colors of this light. This light can help us map dark matter if we understand where the stars within the cluster come from.
“By studying their colors, brightness and configurations, we discovered that they come from small galaxies.”
The orphan stars are just one of the incredible finds Euclid has made in a series of stunning images released today.
Also seen are the breathtaking stellar nursery Messier 78, the swirling galaxy NGC 6744 (catchy name) and the Dorado galaxy group.
Closer to home, an image of the Abell 2764 star cluster also shows a shining star in our own galaxy.
And a final image shows a truly mind-boggling number of 50,000 galaxies in the Abell 2390 cluster – something that will make you wonder if humans can are truly the only form of intelligent life in the universe…
What is Euclid?
Euclid, which one lataken from Cape Canaveral, Florida last July, was launched by the European Space Agency to investigate the composition and evolution of the dark universe. Over the next seven years it will observe billions of galaxies and map more than a third of the sky.
The telescope is equipped with two instruments: the VISible instruments (VIS), designed to “take super-sharp images of billions of galaxies to measure their shapes,” and the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), which scans the universe in infrared captures.
Images released last year showed that the famous Horsehead Nebula in stunning detail in addition to several galaxies, including IC 342, also known as the 'hidden galaxy'.
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