CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Feb. 28 -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued the following news release:
Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that the famous Pleiades star cluster, the "Seven Sisters" often spotted on winter nights, is just the bright tip of a much larger stellar family. By combining data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope, the team uncovered thousands of hidden siblings spread across the sky, a sprawling structure they call the Greater Pleiades Complex. The discovery shows the Pleiades is 20 times larger than previously thought.
Most stars, including our own Sun, are born in groups. Over time, thes...