Super Star Clusters Started Small

The Hubble Space Telescope has helped to reveal a trio of massive, young star clusters which might have been formed by smaller clusters merging together. This tightly packed group of clusters were found in the active star forming region of NGC 5461 (located inside spiral galaxy M101), which is located 23 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. These super clusters can contain the mass of more than 1 million suns, and it’s believed that they’re the precursors to massive globular clusters. In NGC 5461, the various clusters are distinct, but interacting with each other, and will eventually merge into a single, super cluster.