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RR Lyrae variable stars can be found in the left of this gap on a section of the diagram called the instability strip. Cepheid variables also fall on the instability strip, at higher luminosities. The H-R diagram can be used by scientists to roughly measure how far away a star cluster or galaxy is from Earth. This can be done by comparing the ...
Scutum Star Cloud with open cluster Messier 11 at lower left. Technically not star clusters, star clouds are large groups of many stars within a galaxy, spread over very many light-years of space. Often they contain star clusters within them. The stars appear closely packed, but are not usually part of any structure. [18]
A simple chart for classifying the main star types using Harvard classification In astronomy , stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the rainbow of colors ...
A stellar association is a very loose star cluster, looser than both open clusters and globular clusters. Stellar associations will normally contain from 10 to 100 or more visible stars. An association is primarily identified by commonalities in its member stars' movement vectors, ages, and chemical compositions.
One of the first uses of an isochrone method to date an open cluster was by Demarque and Larson in 1963. [3] If the initial mass function of the open cluster is known, isochrones can be calculated at any age by taking every star in the initial population, using numerical simulations to evolve it forwards to the desired age, and plotting the ...
A multiple star system consists of two or more stars that appear from Earth to be close to one another in the sky. [dubious – discuss] This may result from the stars actually being physically close and gravitationally bound to each other, in which case it is a physical multiple star, or this closeness may be merely apparent, in which case it is an optical multiple star [a] Physical multiple ...
The first known globular cluster, now called M 22, was discovered in 1665 by Abraham Ihle, a German amateur astronomer. [4] [5] [6] The cluster Omega Centauri, easily visible in the southern sky with the naked eye, was known to ancient astronomers like Ptolemy as a star, but was reclassified as a nebula by Edmond Halley in 1677, [7] then finally as a globular cluster in the early 19th century ...
Early examples of applying stellar dynamics to clusters include Albert Einstein's 1921 paper applying the virial theorem to spherical star clusters and Fritz Zwicky's 1933 paper applying the virial theorem specifically to the Coma Cluster, which was one of the original harbingers of the idea of dark matter in the universe.