Scientists discover a rebellious star family defying the cosmic order -Blog

AAAstronomers poring through a now-retired space telescope's data have spotted a bizarre family of fledgling stars breaking all the rules of how they're expected to behave.

The star group, which scientists have recently named Ophion, consists of more than 1,000 stars that formed together but are now scattering at high speeds. Stars that share the same birthplace usually migrate together for millions to billions of years.

But Ophion, just 20 million years old, is already flying apart in a fraction of the time it’d usually take to disperse. Researchers say all of these relatives are about to become estranged, completely removed from their ancestral home.

The discovery, made with the European Space Agency's Gaia star-surveying spacecraft, could change how astronomers find and study stellar groups — and reveal previously unknown ways they shape the Milky Way.