Star clusters

Star cluster -Star cluster: A bunch of stars (ranging in number from a few to hundreds of thousands) which are bound to each other by their mutual gravitational attraction.

When stars are born they develop from large clouds of molecular gas. This means that they form in groups or clusters, since molecular clouds are composed of hundreds of solar masses of material. After the remnant gas is heated and blow away, the stars collect together by gravity. During the exchange of energy between the stars, some stars reach escape velocity from the protocluster and become runaway stars. The rest become gravitationally bound, meaning they will exist as collection orbiting each other forever.

When a cluster is young, the brightest members are O, B and A stars. Young clusters in our Galaxy are called open clusters due to their loose appearance. They usually contain between 100 and 1,000 members. One example is the binary cluster below:

And the Jewel Box cluster:

Early in the formation of our Galaxy, very large, globular clusters formed from giant molecular clouds. Each contain over 10,000 members, appear very compact and have the oldest stars in the Universe. One example is M13 (the 13th object in the Messier catalog)shown below: