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If a globular cluster is a dense(relatively speaking) collection of stars, why don't the stars attract each other gravitationally? Why don't they all collide to form a mega-star?
If a globular cluster is a dense(relatively speaking) collection of stars, why don't the stars attract each other gravitationally? Why don't they all collide to form a mega-star?
They do attract each other gravitationally. They don't all crash into one another for the same reason the Earth doesn't crash into the sun.
It is not that I'm a expert on astronomy. But isn't that the same as saying the cluster is rotating?
The stars in the cluster are moving around each other, all orbiting the barycenter of the cluster.
That doesn't mean that the cluster is rotating because the orbital angular momentums doesn't have the same direction. Star clusters usually have no total angular momentum. In addition the trajectory of the stars doesn't have to be orbits.
Is it being suggesting that stars in a globular cluster might be oscillating like bees in a hive?
That doesn't mean that the cluster is rotating because the orbital angular momentums doesn't have the same direction. Star clusters usually have no total angular momentum. In addition the trajectory of the stars doesn't have to be orbits.
If the trajectory isn't in an orbital then the star will escape the cluster.
How about a chaotic path due to many close flybys?
Maybe they're not the right type.
How about a chaotic path due to many close flybys?
You're using a different definition of the word orbit than I'm used to.
I am not sure if orbits are really stable in a cluster where the orbits have a wide distribution of planes.
For any given star, as long as it does not manage to acquire enough velocity to actually escape the cluster (and it's entirely possible some do) it could happily drift around on an highly unstable path.
Isn't that an orbit still? It's still bound to the cluster.
You're using a different definition of the word orbit than I'm used to.
So a star will make on average about N orbits between sizable deflections.
My definition for orbit is a periodic path around a point in space. What is yours?
How about a chaotic path due to many close flybys?
Are hyperbolic orbits not orbits?
If those chaotic paths are closed, are they not orbits?
It is not periodic.