Star clusters tagged posts

A snapshot of a simulated giant molecular cloud marked with with star clusters in formation. Credit: McMaster University

Clusters of stars across the vast reaches of time and space of the entire universe were all created the same way, researchers at McMaster University have determined. Researchers Corey Howard, Ralph Pudritz and William Harris used highly-sophisticated computer simulations to re-create what happens inside gigantic clouds of concentrated gases known to give rise to clusters of stars that are bound together by gravity.

The state-of-the-art simulations follow a cloud of interstellar gas 500 light years in diameter, projecting 5 million years’ worth of evolution wrought by turbulence, gravity and feedback from intense radiation pressure produced by massive stars within forming...

Birthplace of the suns: The integral-shaped filament, the two star clusters above the filament, and cloud L1641 in the south can be seen on these images of the Orion A star formation region. The picture on the left shows a density map compiled with data from the Herschel space telescope, the one on the right an infrared image taken by the WISE space telescope. The photo in the centre is a combination of both images. Credit: A. M. Stutz / MPIA

Space bears witness to a constant stream of star births. And whole star clusters are often formed at the same time – and within a comparatively short period. Amelia Stutz and Andrew Gould from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have proposed a new mechanism to explain this quick formation...

An image of Camargo 791, one of the newly found embedded clusters. Credit: Camargo et al.

When a giant cloud of molecular gas condenses, star clusters are born. It may sound simple but the formation of star clusters is a very complex process. By peering into this process we could get valuable information on the evolution of galaxies and improve our knowledge about large cosmic structures in the universe. “Star clusters are often considered as building blocks of galaxies. Understanding how these objects form and evolve is vital to our comprehension of the structure, formation and evolution of galaxies,” Denilso Camargo.

Camargo and his colleagues recently discovered a multitude of star clusters using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer: 652 star clusters, stellar groups and candidate...