By Ron Cowen
Imagine cramming half-a-million bright young stars into the solar system. Jammed that tightly, they would blast each other with radiation, and some might even coalesce into a black hole.
Known as super star clusters, such compact groupings had been detected only in remote galaxies. Now, astronomers have found a super star cluster in the Milky Way. The discovery will enable researchers to study in detail how huge gatherings of massive stars live and die.