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Article: Fire burn and cauldron bubble; The American Astronomical Society meeting.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 12, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A cluster of nearby stars may hold the key to two scientific puzzles
NEXT time you find yourself looking at the night sky in spring, make sure you turn to the constellation of the Scorpion and, if you are far enough south, especially to the place where it meets the Centaur. There, a bunch of bright stars is beating a hasty retreat from the neighbourhood, having wrought havoc even as it left a precious legacy: starry nights.
Astronomers call these stars the Scorpio-Centaurus OB association (O and B stars being the most massive in the heavens), or "Sco-Cen" for short. Because it contains such big, bright stars, and because Sco-Cen is reasonably close by ...