Open star clusters as a research area encompass the observational and theoretical study of gravitationally bound, relatively young stellar groupings in galactic disks, used as laboratories for stellar and Galactic astrophysics. Research focuses on their formation, dynamical evolution, and dissolution in the Galactic tidal field; detailed determination of their ages, distances, and metallicities; and the characterization of stellar populations, mass functions, and binary fractions. Open clusters are key tracers of Galactic structure, chemical evolution, and star formation history, and are investigated through multiwavelength photometry, high-resolution spectroscopy, astrometry, and N-body simulations to constrain models of stellar evolution and cluster dynamics.
Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that the famous Pleiades star cluster, the "Seven Sisters" often spotted on winter nights, is just the bright tip of a much larger stellar family. ...
Astronomy
Nov 12, 2025
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The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) hasn't yet begun its much-anticipated Legacy Survey of Space and Time. But it saw its first light in June 2025, when it captured its Virgo First Look images as part of commissioning its main ...
Astronomy
Oct 31, 2025
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Using ESA's Gaia satellite and NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers from the Ege University in Turkey and elsewhere have observed a galactic open cluster known as NGC 2506. Results of the observational ...
Westerlund 1, the biggest and closest "super" star cluster to Earth, dazzles in this image released on July 23, 2025. This view combines X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (in pink, blue, purple, and orange), ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2025
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In the past decade, the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope has revealed the nature, history, and behavior of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer has reshaped our view of the skies around us like no other, ...
Astronomy
Aug 26, 2025
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One of the best places to study stars is inside "open clusters," which are groups of stars that formed together from the same material and are bound together through gravity.
Astronomy
Aug 13, 2025
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Orion Nebula, Pleiades and Hyades: The latest research results indicate that these famous star clusters represent the different phases of life of one and the same star system. A team of astrophysicists at the Institute for ...
Astronomy
Jul 18, 2025
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Using the TUBITAK National Observatory and ESA's Gaia satellite, astronomers from the Istanbul University in Turkey and elsewhere have conducted comprehensive observations of two open clusters, namely: Czernik 41 and NGC ...
Researchers from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have made significant progress in understanding how three-dimensional (3D) layered structures form within open star clusters. ...
Astronomy
Jul 7, 2025
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This week, Aotearoa New Zealand officially celebrates Matariki for the fourth time, marked by the reappearance in the night sky of the star cluster also known as the Pleiades.
Environment
Jun 18, 2025
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