Globular vs. open clusters
• Open Clusters
– Typically a few thousand stars
– Not gravitationally bound
– Often contain young stars
– Concentrated in plane of Milky Way
– Distributed “randomly” around the
circle of the Milky Way
• Globular Clusters
– Typically >hundred thousand stars
– Only contain older stars
– Are gravitationally bound
– Not strongly concentrated in plane of
Milky Way
– Not randomly distributed around the
circle of the Milky Way – more
towards Sagittarius