Explore · interactive
Mass segregation
Young clusters are often born already segregated — the most massive stars sit deepest, where the gas was densest. One knob, , sets how tightly a star's mass is tied to the density of the cell it forms in. Slide it up and watch the big blue stars migrate to the core.
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drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · ←/→ steps the coupling · F fullscreen
Nothing here is choreographed. The star positions and the gas are fixed; only changes which star lands in each position, via the same rank-coupling (McLuster Eq. A1) thatprogenax uses to build segregated initial conditions. At the most massive star takes the single densest cell; at the pairing is random. The 10,000 stars re-pair in your browser as you drag.