Related papers: Super-star clusters versus OB associations
Massive Star Clusters (SCs) have been proposed as additional contributors to Galactic Cosmic rays (CRs), to overcome the limitations of supernova remnants (SNRs) to reach the highest energy end of the CR spectrum. Thanks to fast mass losses…
Globular clusters (GCs) constitute a system which is evolving because of various interactions with the galactic environment. Evolution may be the explanation of many observed features of Globular Cluster Systems (GCSs); the different radial…
Dense star clusters are spectacular self-gravitating stellar systems in our Galaxy and across the Universe - in many respects. They populate disks and spheroids of galaxies as well as almost every galactic center. In massive elliptical…
Gravitational interactions in very young high-density stellar clusters can to some degree change the angular momentum in the circumstellar discs surrounding initially the majority of stars. However, for most stars the cluster environment…
Clusters of galaxies are merging during the formation of large-scale structures in the Universe. Based on optical survey data, we identify a large sample of pre-mergers of galaxy clusters and merging subclusters in rich clusters. We find…
The Universe's largest galaxy clusters likely built the majority of their massive $>10^{11} M_\odot$ galaxies in simultaneous, short-lived bursts of activity well before virialization. This conclusion is reached from emerging datasets on…
Nuclear star clusters are located at the dynamical centers of the majority of galaxies. They are usually the densest and most massive star cluster in their host galaxy. In this article, I will give a brief overview of our current knowledge…
We discuss the observed multiplicity of massive stars and implications on theories of massive star formation. After a short summary of the literature on massive star multiplicity, we focus on the O- and B-type stars in the Orion Nebula…
OB associations are unbound groups of young stars made prominent by their bright OB members, and have long been thought to be the expanded remnants of dense star clusters. They have been important in astrophysics for over a century thanks…
We discuss how contemporary multiwavelength observations of young OB-dominated clusters address long-standing astrophysical questions: Do clusters form rapidly or slowly with an age spread? When do clusters expand and disperse to constitute…
Interacting galaxies are known to have higher global rates of star formation on average than normal galaxies, relative to their stellar masses. Using UV and IR photometry combined with new and published H-alpha images, we have compared the…
Most stars do not form in isolation but as part of a cluster comprising anywhere between a few dozen to several million stars with stellar densities ranging from 0.01 to several 10$^5$ \Msun pc$^{-3}$. The majority of these clusters…
Low-mass stars 0.1 ~< M ~< 1 Msun) in OB associations are key to addressing some of the most fundamental problems in star formation. The low-mass stellar populations of OB associations provide a snapshot of the fossil star-formation record…
We investigate whether the dynamical status of clusters is related to the large-scale structure of the Universe. We find that cluster substructure is strongly correlated with the tendency of clusters to be aligned with their nearest…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are found in at least 70% of all galaxies, but their formation path is still unclear. In the most common scenarios, NSCs form in-situ from the galaxy's central gas reservoir, through merging of globular clusters…
We discuss the observations and theory of star cluster formation to argue that clusters form dynamically cool (subvirial) and with substructure. We then perform an ensemble of simulations of cool, clumpy (fractal) clusters and show that…
We report on a study of young star cluster complexes in the spiral galaxy M51. Recent studies have confirmed that star clusters do not form in isolation, but instead tend to form in larger groupings or complexes. We use {\it HST} broad and…
We quantify the structure of a very large number of Galactic open clusters and look for evidence of mass segregation for the most massive stars in the clusters. We characterise the structure and mass segregation ratios of 1276 clusters in…
The dense, clustered environment in which massive stars form can lead to interactions with neighboring stars. It has been hypothesized that collisions and mergers may contribute to the growth of the most massive stars. In this paper we…
A large fraction of bulgeless disk galaxies contain young compact stellar systems at their centers, in spite of the local gravitational stability of these disks. We evaluate two contrasting hypotheses for the origin of the nuclear star…