One often hears New Agers referring to the Pleiades as if the stars in that
constellation are right next to each other. I have argued with one such
person to the effect that those stars only appear to be close from Earth,
and that in fact they are trillions of miles away from each other. Can
someone tell me what the average distance of those stars from each other is?

"Odysseus" <odysseus1479...@yahoo-dot.ca> wrote in message...

news:odysseus1479-at-C15D1D.00580616042008@news.telus.net...



In article <1208073537.420...@bubbleator.drizzle.com>,
"William L. Houts" <abra...@drizzle.com> wrote:

One often hears New Agers referring to the Pleiades as if the stars in
that
constellation are right next to each other. I have argued with one such
person to the effect that those stars only appear to be close from Earth,
and that in fact they are trillions of miles away from each other. Can
someone tell me what the average distance of those stars from each other
is?

The Pleiades are a physical cluster, one of the first to be identified
as such; although of course not all the stars in the field belong to it,
the handful that are visible to the naked eye do, along with several
hundred others and the accompanying clouds of gas, which shine with blue
reflected starlight. At a distance of somewhat over four hundred
light-years, the brightest stars in the group, averaging perhaps half a
degree apart, must be separated by about four light-years--say 25
trillion miles for an rough guesstimate. For another, the bulk of the
cluster occupies a volume of at least a couple of thousand cubic
light-years, giving even the fainter stars, on average, several cubic
light-years each. That's quite a bit more densely populated than the
region around the Solar System, but still nothing like 'shoulder to
shoulder'!

--
Odysseus

Read recently that there are about 3,000 stars in the
Pleiades, and all within a rough diameter of about 13
light years...

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060109.html

As for the brighter stars, a question that comes to my
mind would be to wonder what the few bright stars in
our vicinity, say a similar 12 or 13 light year diameter,
would look like to an observer on a Pleiades planet?

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine

P.S. Thank YOU for reading!

P.P.S. (shh) Some secret sites...
http://painellsworth.net
http://savethechildren.org
http://eBook-eDen.secretsgolden.com

"BradGuth" <bradg...@gmail.com> wrote in message...

news:3641654d-714b-4d00-82db-310227bb3a64@p39g2000prm.googlegroups.com...

I tend to agree with your accounting of "3,000 stars in the
Pleiades, and all within a rough diameter of about 13
light years..."

This seems to put our solar system just to the outside of being 8.6 ly
from Sirius, but closing in at roughly 7.5 km/s, and for all we know
increasing upon that closing velocity.

What's the combined mass of those 3,000 stars of the 13 ly Pleiades
cluster?
. - Brad Guth

Let's see, if me math don't fail me, it'll take about
40,000 years for us to "close" on Sirius at that speed
and distance. And that's of course if any relative
tangential velocity vector is zero. Doubtful. Could
be simply some kind of orbital arrangement?

I haven't searched hard, but a scan search reveals
little about the Pleiades in terms of mass. Just a lot
of spectral-type B stars and some brown dwarfs, all
indicating a young cluster that's been around only for
about a half a turn of the galaxy or so.

You've got me wondering though, Brad. Since all the
stars of the Pleiades (and like clusters) are thought
to have come from the same nursery nebula, I ponder
over how many of the stars in our 10-13 light-year
diameter region of space were spawned from the
same hydrogen cloud as our Sun was?

In article <1208073537.420096@bubbleator.drizzle.com>,
"William L. Houts" <abraxas@drizzle.com> wrote:

One often hears New Agers referring to the Pleiades as if the stars in
that
constellation are right next to each other. I have argued with one such
person to the effect that those stars only appear to be close from Earth,
and that in fact they are trillions of miles away from each other. Can
someone tell me what the average distance of those stars from each other
is?

The Pleiades are a physical cluster, one of the first to be identified
as such; although of course not all the stars in the field belong to it,
the handful that are visible to the naked eye do, along with several
hundred others and the accompanying clouds of gas, which shine with blue
reflected starlight. At a distance of somewhat over four hundred
light-years, the brightest stars in the group, averaging perhaps half a
degree apart, must be separated by about four light-years--say 25
trillion miles for an rough guesstimate. For another, the bulk of the
cluster occupies a volume of at least a couple of thousand cubic
light-years, giving even the fainter stars, on average, several cubic
light-years each. That's quite a bit more densely populated than the
region around the Solar System, but still nothing like 'shoulder to
shoulder'!

--
Odysseus

I tend to agree with your accounting of "3,000 stars in the
Pleiades, and all within a rough diameter of about 13
light years..."

This seems to put our solar system just to the outside of being 8.6 ly
from Sirius, but closing in at roughly 7.5 km/s, and for all we know
increasing upon that closing velocity.

What's the combined mass of those 3,000 stars of the 13 ly Pleiades
cluster?
. - Brad Guth

I tend to agree with your accounting of "3,000 stars in the
Pleiades, and all within a rough diameter of about 13
light years..."

This seems to put our solar system just to the outside of being 8.6 ly
from Sirius, but closing in at roughly 7.5 km/s, and for all we know
increasing upon that closing velocity.

What’s the combined mass of those 3,000 stars of the 13 ly Pleiades
cluster?
. Brad Guth

"BradGuth" <bradguth@gmail.com> wrote in message...
news:3641654d-714b-4d00-82db-310227bb3a64@p39g2000prm.googlegroups.com...

I tend to agree with your accounting of "3,000 stars in the
Pleiades, and all within a rough diameter of about 13
light years..."

This seems to put our solar system just to the outside of being 8.6 ly
from Sirius, but closing in at roughly 7.5 km/s, and for all we know
increasing upon that closing velocity.

What's the combined mass of those 3,000 stars of the 13 ly Pleiades
cluster?
. - Brad Guth

Let's see, if me math don't fail me, it'll take about
40,000 years for us to "close" on Sirius at that speed
and distance. And that's of course if any relative
tangential velocity vector is zero. Doubtful. Could
be simply some kind of orbital arrangement?

I haven't searched hard, but a scan search reveals
little about the Pleiades in terms of mass. Just a lot
of spectral-type B stars and some brown dwarfs, all
indicating a young cluster that's been around only for
about a half a turn of the galaxy or so.

You've got me wondering though, Brad. Since all the
stars of the Pleiades (and like clusters) are thought
to have come from the same nursery nebula, I ponder
over how many of the stars in our 10-13 light-year
diameter region of space were spawned from the
same hydrogen cloud as our Sun was?

Let's see, if me math don't fail me, it'll take about
40,000 years for us to "close" on Sirius at that speed
and distance. And that's of course if any relative
tangential velocity vector is zero. Doubtful. Could
be simply some kind of orbital arrangement?

If we included the Ursa Major Group of 220 some odd stars, as for
working on behalf of a collective mass and subsequent tidal radius of
10~12 ly, as such it darn well could be an orbital consideration.
BTW, given another 40,000 years sounds about right for our close
encounter with the Sirius star/solar system, and of taking on whatever
the Sirius Oort cloud has to offer.


I haven't searched hard, but a scan search reveals
little about the Pleiades in terms of mass. Just a lot
of spectral-type B stars and some brown dwarfs, all
indicating a young cluster that's been around only for
about a half a turn of the galaxy or so.

According to some Wikipedia posted data, Pleiades offers an impressive
collective stellar mass of roughly 800 solar masses, and a tidal
radius of 43 ly.


You've got me wondering though, Brad. Since all the
stars of the Pleiades (and like clusters) are thought
to have come from the same nursery nebula, I ponder
over how many of the stars in our 10-13 light-year
diameter region of space were spawned from the
same hydrogen cloud as our Sun was?

I'm thinking of multiple encounters (some good, some bad) so as
everything from old to new might coexist within the same general
area. Since various stars are seldom of the same age, seems perfectly
natural to further perceive that whatever spare/surplus planets and
moons could also be of different ages.
. - Brad Guth