Stunning images of the cosmic 'snowflakes' in NASA images

NASA has just released a stunning image of stars from a globular cluster about 13,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Stunning images of NGC 6441. (Image: NASA).

This cluster is called NGC 6441. It appears like snowflakes in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The European Space Agency refers to NGC 6441 as "cosmic snowflakes". They are thought to have 1.6 million times the mass of the Sun. This "massive" mass makes NGC 6441 one of the largest and most luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy.

NGC 6441 is also home to JaFu 2 , one of only four nebulae known to live in globular clusters in the Milky Way.

The Milky Way galaxy currently has about 150 star clusters.

"Globular clusters contain some of the first stars created in the galaxy, but details about their origin and evolution remain elusive for astronomers," NASA said.