Overview
- A peer-reviewed study in The Astrophysical Journal identifies roughly 3,000 related stars spread across nearly 600 parsecs (about 2,000 light-years), making the system about 20 times larger than previously recognized.
- The ensemble, named the Greater Pleiades Complex, reframes the Seven Sisters as the gravitationally bound core of a much larger, dissolving association.
- Scientists combined TESS rotation rates with Gaia astrometry and SDSS chemical abundances, introducing a practical 'gyro-tagging' method to confirm membership.
- Members share an age of about 127 million years and incorporate multiple previously noted moving groups that now appear to have a common origin in the same stellar nursery.
- The team plans to apply this approach to other nearby populations to map extended stellar families and probe the Sun’s possible birth environment.