Terzan 5: A Stripped Stellar Remnant Still Building Stars

Terzan 5, a dense star cluster in the Milky Way's central bulge, has survived tidal disruption—the gravitational shredding that destroys most such objects. Webb and Hubble observations show its core retained enough gas to fuel four distinct generations of star formation over billions of years. The finding, published 16 June 2026, identifies Terzan 5 as the first example of a new class: the bulge fossil fragment.