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Star clusters or star clouds are groups of stars. Two types
of star clusters can be distinguished: globular
clusters are tight groups of hundreds of
thousands of very old stars which are gravitationally bound,
while open clusters, more loosely
clustered groups of stars, generally contain fewer than a
few hundred members, and are often very young. Open clusters
become disrupted over time by the gravitational influence of
giant molecular clouds as they move through the galaxy, but
cluster members will continue to move in broadly the same
direction through space even though they are no longer
gravitationally bound; they are then known as a stellar
association, sometimes also referred to as a moving group.
There are also other
types of star clusters:
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Intermediate forms,
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Super start clusters,
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Embedded clusters.
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