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Astronomy & Space vocabulary · Galaxies & Deep Sky

Star cluster

Meaning in astronomy & space, with examples

nounCommon term

In astronomy & space, star cluster means: A group of stars born from the same cloud and held together by gravity. Open clusters are loose and young; globular clusters are dense balls of very old stars.

In Turkish: yıldız kümesi

How it is used

Favourite targets for binoculars and small telescopes. The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, is a famous open cluster visible to the naked eye. Astronomers use clusters to study how stars of the same age evolve.

Example sentences

  1. The Pleiades is a young star cluster about 440 light-years away.

  2. Through binoculars the star cluster looked like a handful of diamonds.

Common collocations

  • open star cluster
  • globular star cluster
  • young star cluster
  • the Pleiades star cluster
  • starA huge ball of hot gas, mainly hydrogen and helium, that produces light and heat through nuclear reactions in its core. The Sun is the nearest star to Earth.
  • galaxyAn enormous system of stars, gas, dust and dark matter held together by gravity. A large galaxy can contain hundreds of billions of stars.
  • nebulaA huge cloud of gas and dust in space. Some nebulae are places where new stars are born; others are material thrown off by dying stars.
  • Milky WayThe barred spiral galaxy that contains our solar system and a few hundred billion stars. It also names the pale band of light it forms across a dark night sky.

More terms: Galaxies & Deep Sky

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