open star cluster tagged posts

Researchers verify this phenomenon using Gaia data from the Hyades. In the course of their life, open star clusters continuously lose stars to their surroundings. The resulting swath of tidal tails provides a glimpse into the evolution and dissolution of a star cluster. Thus far only tidal tails of massive globular clusters and dwarf galaxies have been discovered in the Milky Way system. In open clusters, this phenomenon existed only in theory. Researchers at Heidelberg University have now finally verified the existence of such a tidal tail in the star cluster closest to the Sun, the Hyades. An analysis of measurements from the Gaia satellite led to the discovery.

Open star clusters are collections o...

Beehive Cluster. Credit: Sven Kohle and Till Credner

Astronomers have detected a new low-mass eclipsing binary star in an open cluster named NGC 2632, better known as the Beehive Cluster (or Praesepe). The newly identified binary, designated PTFEB132.707+19.810, contains two late-type stars much smaller and less massive than the sun.

NGC 2632 is an open star cluster that looks like a hive of bees in the constellation Cancer. Located some 577 light years away, it is one of the nearest open clusters to the solar system. Due to its proximity, this cluster is the target of numerous observations conducted by astronomers searching for new objects, including eclipsing binaries. Such binaries could be very helpful in improving our known theoretical stellar evolution models.

Although PTFEB132...

This artist’s impression shows a hot Jupiter planet orbiting close to one of the stars in the rich old star cluster Messier 67, in the constellation of Cancer (The Crab). Astronomers have found far more planets like this in the cluster than expected. This surprise result was obtained using a number of telescopes and instruments, among them the HARPS spectrograph at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The denser environment in a cluster will cause more frequent interactions between planets and nearby stars, which may explain the excess of hot Jupiters. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Astronomers have found there are far more planets of the hot Jupiter type than expected in a cluster of stars called Messier 67...