Mosaic of images of 12 globular clusters

Mosaic of images of 12 globular clusters ranked in order of increasing dynamical age, as measured from the observed radial distribution of their blue straggler stars. From top left to bottom right: omega Centauri, NGC 288, M55, NGC6388, M4, M13, M10, M5, 47 Tucanae, NGC6752, M80, M30.
CREDIT: F.Ferraro (University of Bologna), NASA, ESA . Just like people, huge star clusters age at variable rates depending on their lifestyles, a new study reports.

While such star clusters are many billions of years old, some of them manage to stay young at heart while others speed along toward decrepitude, astronomers found.

"By studying the distribution of a type of blue star that exists in the clusters, we found that some clusters had indeed evolved much faster over their lifetimes, and we developed a way to measure the rate of aging," lead author Francesco Ferraro, of the University of Bologna in Italy, said in a statement.