NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has recently captured faint and ghostly glow of stars from dead ancient galaxies, it has been revealed.
The event occurred 4 billion light-years away, inside an immense collection of nearly 500 galaxies nicknamed "Pandora's Cluster," also known as Abell 2744.
The scattered stars are no longer bound to any one galaxy, and drift freely between galaxies in the cluster. By observing the light from the orphaned stars, Hubble astronomers have assembled forensic evidence that suggested as many as six galaxies were torn to pieces inside the cluster over a stretch of 6 billion years.
Computer modeling of the gravitational dynamics among galaxies in a cluster suggested that galaxies as big as our Milky Way Galaxy are the likely candidates as the source of the stars.
The team estimated that the combined light of about 200 billion outcast stars contributes approximately 10 percent of the cluster's brightness.
Hubble measurements determined that the phantom stars are rich in heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. This means the scattered stars must be second or third-generation stars enriched with the elements forged in the hearts of the universe's first-generation stars.
