An
open cluster refers to a group of stars that are relatively close together and are held together by their mutual gravitational attraction.
Full definition
Wide - field imaging surveys on moderate - size telescopes can now efficiently derive rotation periods for hundreds to thousands
of open cluster members, providing unprecedented sample sizes which are ripe for exploration.
It became possible in the 1990s to discover very
young open clusters that previously had been entirely hidden in deep, dusty regions.
Typical open clusters can contain anything from a few tens to a few thousands of stars, and provide astronomers with clues about stellar evolution.
The cluster is around 1.7 billion years old — making it middle - aged
by open cluster standards.
An
average open cluster has spread most of its member stars along its path after several 100 million years; only few of them have an age counted by billions of years.
One other such case is known: That of the Delta Cephei star U Normae in
open cluster NGC 6087.
Judging from the sample of
open clusters within 3,000 light - years of the Sun, only half of them can withstand such tidal forces for more than 200 million years, and a mere 2 percent have life expectancies as high as 1 billion years.
By analogy
with open clusters in external galaxies similar to the Galaxy, it is surmised that they follow the general distribution of integrated light in the Galaxy, except that there are probably fewer of them in the central areas.
NGC 3532 is a
bright open cluster located some 1300 light - years away in the constellation of Carina (The Keel of the ship Argo).
The Ara Cluster is a compact young
open cluster located approximately 12,100 light years from Earth.
Because open clusters are only loosely bound by gravity to begin with, and because they constantly lose mass as some of their gas is pushed away by the radiation of the young hot stars, these disturbances occur often enough to cause the stars to wander off from their siblings, just as the Sun is believed to have done many years ago.
NGC 3590 is a
small open cluster of stars around 7500 light - years from Earth, in the constellation of Carina (The Keel).
Kepler's new mission, K2, is targeting
several open clusters and star - forming regions around the ecliptic to search for transiting planets around their low - mass constituents.
Collinder 228, or Cr 228, is only one of 8
cataloged open clusters within the area of this huge star - forming region; the others are Bochum (Bo) 10, Trumpler (Tr) 14 (also cataloged as Cr 230), Tr 15 (= Cr 231), Cr 232, Tr 16 (= Cr 233), Cr 234, and Bo 11.
Abstract: We performed a deep wide field optical survey of the young (~ 100 - 150 Myr)
open cluster Blanco1 to study its low mass population well down into the brown dwarf regime and estimate its mass function over the whole cluster mass range.The survey covers 2.3 square degrees in the I and z - bands down to I ~ z ~ 24 with the CFH12K camera.
The rotation period distributions show a clear mass - dependent morphology, statistical... ▽ More We report on the results of a time - series photometric survey of M50 (NGC 2323), a ~ 130
Myr open cluster, carried out using the CTIO 4m Blanco telescope and Mosaic - II detector as part of the Monitor project.
Open clusters like NGC 2367 are a common sight in spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, and tend to form in their host's outer regions.
A cluster of top - seeded women succumbed to self - doubt and shaky mechanics during a volatile first week at the Open
Because the gravitational energy binding their stars is fairly weak,
open clusters usually evaporate within about a billion years.
Open clusters such as this are collections of stars weakly bound by the shackles of gravity, all of which formed from the same massive molecular cloud of gas and dust.
At a mere 500 000 years old — a small fraction of the
Pleiades open cluster's age of 115 million years — Trumpler 14 is not only one of the most populous clusters within the Carina Nebula, but also the youngest.
Like
many open clusters, NGC 2367 is embedded within an emission nebula), from which its stars were born.
M7 is a relatively
close open cluster and lies less than 1,000 light years away, it can even be seen with the naked eye!
Gosta Lynga began a catalog of all optically visible star clusters in 1977 («Plans for a Computer - Readable Cluster Catalogue») and it has since been continued by others, most recently in the «New catalogue of optically
visible open clusters and candidates» by Dias, Alessi, Moitinho, and Lépine.
Therefore, we see the most current density wave in the reddish H II regions, the elder next in the blueish clouds and associations of hot young stars, the next in age are characterized by type II (and Ib, Ic) supernova remnants and a bit older, less hot and
blue open clusters.
Open cluster Messier 23 (M23, NGC 6494) is another glorious sight for small telescopes and binoculars in the summer Milky Way.
This is an
awesome open cluster located quite close to the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius in Canis Major.
It lies in the northwest part of (6:55:18.7 +25:22:32.5, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Gemini, the Twins — west of Mebsuta (Epsilon Geminorum), northeast of Mu (Teja) and Eta (Propus) Geminorum, northwest of Zeta (Mekbuta) and Delta (Wasat) Geminorum, and east of
open cluster M35.
Globular cluster NGC 1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.Most of the cluster consists of yellow stars; the bright white stars are members of a second,
open cluster about 200 light - years beyond NGC 1850.
About 2deg to the West of M27 is
inconspicuous open cluster NGC 6830, containing about 20 - 30 widely scattered stars; this cluster is about 5500 ly distant.
Measured ages of
open clusters agree with the conclusions that have been reached about their life expectancies.
Testing the chemical tagging with old
Open Clusters Sergi Blanco - Cuaresma 2013 December 04, 13:30 IA / U.
UKS image of the Milky Way around the Omega Nebula M17 (the red nebula slightly left of top center),
open cluster M18 (the little cluster nearly exactly between M17 and M24) and the Milky Way star cloud M24 (slightly below center).
Although this is what Messier discovered, it is interesting that, within this stellar cloud which is easily visible to the naked eye, there's a
dim open cluster, NGC 6603, of magnitude 11.
Immediately south of the star cloud, separated by a dark band, is the emission nebula IC 1283 - 1284, with two adjacent reflection nebulae, NGC 6589 and NGC 6590, all these nebulae associated with the little
conspicuous open cluster NGC 6595.
Phrases with «open cluster»