open cluster M67 tagged posts

False-colour image of the stellar open cluster M67. Red, green, blue composite based on Johnson B, V and G bandpass images. Captured with WiFSIP/STELLA on Tenerife. Credit: AIP

It turns out these stars spin around once in ~26 days – just like our Sun. This discovery significantly strengthens what is known as the solar-stellar connection, a fundamental principle that guides much of modern solar and stellar astrophysics. This principle – that the Sun is a star – was only proved in the 19th century when distances to the nearest stars were measured. It enables us to use the Sun, the only star we can observe in detail, to study processes occurring on other stars, and conversely, to use other stars to infer the past and future of our Sun...