#stellar clusters

[astronomicamens]

The Early Life of Stellar Clusters

The Early Life of Stellar Clusters

The goal of the workshop is to bridge the artificial divide between the fields of star formation and stellar dynamics. Star formation provides the initial conditions for the long term evolution of stellar clusters, while the dynamics of stars in clusters after star formation has ceased can inform on the conditions that have prevailed in the environment in which the clusters have formed.

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[myfavoriteredhead]

A Hot Discovery

It was unknown whether planets can form in dense environments until a team of scientists from Georgia State University and colleagues in California observed planets orbiting stars in the Beehive stellar cluster.  Such planets are called "hot Jupiters" because they are gaseous and well...hot.  The star that the two detected planets orbit is similar to our galaxy's sun.  The planets were observed with a 1.5-meter Tillinghast telescope at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory.  They were noted by measuring "the slight gravitational wobble the orbiting planets induce upon their host stars" (GSU).  This raises the questions like what other unlikely locations in the universe planets may be found and how did the hot Jupiters end up so close to the sun-star,