Simple Gravity Doesn't Explain Distribution Of Stars In Crowded Clusters
Gravity works, it is a dominant force in physics, but at the very large and very small scales it holds a lot of mysteries left to be solved. Foe example, when it comes to stars in young star clusters the dynamics in these crowded environments cannot be simply explained by the pull of gravity. After analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images of star cluster NGC 1818 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, researchers at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University in Beijing found more binary star systems toward the periphery of cluster than in the center, the opposite of what they expected. The distribution of binaries is thought to result from complex interactions among stars within young clusters. read more