Open Star Clusters and Their Asymmetrical Tidal Tails

Abstract

Stars that evaporate from their star cluster by the energy equipartition process end up in either a leading or a trailing tidal tail. In Newtonian gravitation and for open star clusters in the solar vicinity, the tidal threshold, or práh, for escape is symmetrical, such that the leading and trailing tails are equally populated. The data from six independent teams that applied the convergent point method to map out the tidal tails of four open clusters (the Hyades, Praesepe, Coma Berenices, and COIN-Gaia 13) using Gaia DR2 and DR3 are here applied to test for the expected symmetry. All tidal tails contain more stars in the leading tail. The combined confidence amounts to an 8 σ falsification of the práh symmetry. The same test using Milgromian dynamics leads to consistency with the data. More effort needs to be exerted on this matter, but the data indicate with high confidence that the tidal práh of an open star cluster is asymmetrical, with the corresponding confidence that Newtonian gravitation is falsified. Open star clusters depopulate more rapidly in Milgromian than in Newtonian dynamics, and the COIN-Gaia 13 cluster is here found to be nearly completely dissolved. In view of these results, the wide-binary star test and the finding of a Keplerian Galactic rotation curve are briefly discussed.

Keywords

• Open star clusters
• Star clusters
• Tidal tails
• Gravitation
• Newtonian gravitation
• Modified Newtonian dynamics