Galactic Bloodlines

The origins of young star clusters surrounding the Sun have long been shrouded in mystery. An international team of astronomers, led by Cameren Swiggum at the University of Vienna, has uncovered the origins of these star clusters using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission. By tracing the motions of hundreds of young star clusters backward in time, they discovered that the majority of these clusters are part of one of three families. These families formed in past sites of massive star formation over 30 million years ago. This website hosts a plethora of interactive figures, videos, and images related to this discovery.