Gaia's variable stars: A new map of the stellar life cycle

“It Is a Scientific First”: Groundbreaking Star Map Reveals Stellar Evolution at a Galactic Scale

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Gaia's variable stars: A new map of the stellar life cycle

One of the best places to study stars is inside "open clusters," which are groups of stars that formed together from the same material and are bound together through gravity.

A Fresh Look at the Life Cycle of Stars, Courtesy of Gaia

Using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, they mapped nearly 35,000 variable stars inside 1,200 open clusters.