Stellar association

Stellar associations are groups of stars that are born around the same time and in the same area in space. It's like when you and your friends go to the same school and you all were born about the same time.

When stars are born, they form from clouds of gas and dust. These clouds can be huge, almost like giant clumps in space. Inside these giant clumps, there can be many smaller clumps of gas and dust that eventually turn into stars. These smaller clumps are like your toys in your toy box.

When the stars first form, they are often very close to each other. They are still young and have a lot of gas and dust around them which makes it easier for them to be close together. As the stars get older, they move away from each other. It's like how you and your friends might have all played together when you were younger, but as you got older, you started to do different things and see each other less.

Stellar associations can be really important for astronomers because they allow scientists to study how stars are born and how they evolve over time. Because all the stars in a stellar association are about the same age, scientists can compare them to each other to see how stars change as they get older. It's like if you and your friends all had the same toy and you watched how it changed over time as you played with it.