Samantha Mathewson joined Space.com as an intern in the summer of 2016. She received a B.A. in Journalism and Environmental Science at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut. Previously, her work has been published in Nature World News. When not writing or reading about science, Samantha enjoys traveling to new places and taking photos! You can follow her on Twitter @Sam_Ashley13.
"The brightest stars in this image are adorned with prominent cross-shaped patterns of light known as diffraction spikes," ESA officials wrote in the statement."These astronomical embellishments are a type of imaging artifact, meaning that they are caused by the structure of Hubble rather than the stars themselves.
The path taken by the starlight as it enters the telescope is slightly disturbed by its internal structure, causing bright objects to be surrounded by spikes of light." Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys have different fields of view, which determines how much of the sky each instrument can observe.