HubbleSite Hubble Finds Evidence of Stellar Close Encounters: Bright Blue Stars and Naked Cores

[Space Telescope Science]

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has discovered a new population of stars isolated deep in the core of M15, one of the densest globular star clusters. The stars are among the hottest stars observed in the core of a globular cluster. The most likely explanation for their existence is that they are the "naked cores" of stars that have been stripped of their outer envelope of gas, according to astronomers.

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