What are the characteristics of an open cluster of stars?
Answers
Star clusters form from the same molecular cloud. An open cluster of stars is one that can contain about a dozen to a few hundred members. In addition, they are spaced loosely and are generally younger, hot stars. ... The Pleiades open cluster is a group of newly formed B-type stars.
An open cluster is a group of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way Galaxy, and many more are thought to exist.[2] They are loosely bound by mutual gravitational attraction and become disrupted by close encounters with other clusters and clouds of gas as they orbit the galactic center. This can result in a migration to the main body of the galaxy and a loss of cluster members through internal close encounters.[3] Open clusters generally survive for a few hundred million years, with the most massive ones surviving for a few billion years. In contrast, the more massive globular clusters of stars exert a stronger gravitational attraction on their members, and can survive for longer. Open clusters have been found only in spiral and irregular galaxies, in which active star formation is occurring.[4]