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A Cluster of Orphan Stars

September 21, 2007 on 4:50 pm | In Astronomy, Stars |

Astronomers have discovered a cluster of orphan stars which are forming in a tail of gas far from its parent galaxy. The discovery of these stars suggests that ‘orphan’ stars may be more common than first thought. The tail extends more than 210,000 light years and was created as gas was stripped from a galaxy called ESO 137-001. The gas in the tail has formed millions of stars. Because of the large amount of gas and dust required to form stars astronomers have previously thought it was unlikely for a large numbers of stars to form outside a galaxy.