Month: July 2025

MASS LOSS – The process by which a star loses material over time, often due to stellar winds or coronal mass ejections.

STELLAR WIND – A flow of gas expelled from a star’s outer layers, usually in the form of charged particles.

OPEN CLUSTER MEMBERS – Stars that are part of a star cluster, typically sharing a common origin and age.

PROPER MOTION – The apparent motion of stars in a star cluster relative to more distant background stars.

GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL – The energy that stars in a cluster possess due to their mutual gravitational attraction.

ECCENTRIC ORBIT – An orbit of a star cluster or individual stars that deviates from a perfect circle, often influenced by external forces.

CLUSTER AGE – The age of a star cluster, determined by observing the main sequence turnoff point.

KING MODEL – A model describing the structure and density profile of globular clusters, where stars are densest at the center.

CORE COLLAPSE – The contraction of a star cluster’s central region as stars gravitate inward over time.