Open Cluster
Stellar Nurseries & Co-Moving Groups
Stars distributed by a King-like profile concentrated toward the centre. Spectral mix is biased toward hot blue-white stars (typical of young clusters). Faint background nebulosity hints at the recent formation event.
An open cluster is a family of hundreds to thousands of stars formed from the same molecular cloud. They share an age, composition, and roughly the same kinematic motion through the galaxy.
Unlike binaries, the gravitational binding is weak. Over hundreds of millions of years tidal forces from the galaxy and close encounters with other masses gradually disperse the cluster — its members spread into a moving group sharing only common motion.
The Sun likely formed in such a cluster ~4.6 Gyr ago. Its siblings are now scattered around the galaxy.
Elite Dangerous includes named clusters as visited POIs. Pleiades, Hyades, and Praesepe are travel destinations — and the Pleiades is where most of the Thargoid presence concentrated.
Inside a cluster, hop distances between systems are short. You'll see neighbouring stars as bright stellar disks even from supercruise — because they really are close.
Globular clusters lie above and below the galactic plane — getting there requires careful FSD planning. They're among the oldest objects in the galaxy.
| Cluster | Age | Members | Distance | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleiades (M45) | ~100 Myr | ~3,000 | 444 ly | The Seven Sisters — visible to naked eye |
| Hyades | ~625 Myr | ~400 | 153 ly | Closest cluster to the Sun |
| Praesepe (M44) | ~600 Myr | ~1,000 | 577 ly | Beehive Cluster — older open cluster |
| Double Cluster (h+χ) | ~14 Myr | ~10,000 | 7,500 ly | Two coincident clusters in Perseus |
| ω Centauri (NGC 5139) | ~12 Gyr | ~10⁷ | 17,090 ly | Globular — densely packed, ancient population |
| M13 | ~12 Gyr | ~10⁵ | 22,200 ly | Hercules Globular — bright northern target |
| Trapezium (θ¹ Ori) | <1 Myr | ~5 | 1,344 ly | Embryonic — still forming inside the Orion Nebula |