The Hubble Space Telescope has recently determined another theory why some stars in globular clusters, pictured below, appear brighter than others. It's not necessarily because they are bigger and farther away, or smaller and closer, but because they may actually be stealing some thunder from their neighbors. Vampire style.
Or you could call it leeching, I guess. Pretty much the same thing. But NASA's right; vampires are way cooler.Anyway, these clusters (usually 12-13 billion years old, abuh!) have a few loners (blue stragglers) that don't really appreciate their old age, and siphon youth (hydrogen) from the other stars. Greedy, if you ask me.
The telescope also found that some of the blue stragglers increased their brightness after colliding with other stars, in a sort of nuclear fusion.
That's an interesting little elderly community right there. Check it out here!
Cheers-Martha
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