Open cluster

An open cluster is formed from a molecular cloud, the illuminated parts of which we see as one or more nebulae. They are also called galactic clusters since they exist within the galaxy.

The closest to us is in Ursa Major, or to be more correct, it is Ursa Major! Most of the stars in the famous asterism are members of an old and mostly dispersed open cluster. Sirius is a former member of this cluster and our sun is in the outskirts of what is called The Ursa Major Stream, a group of stars that are all ex-members of the Ursa Major Cluster spanning over a thousand light years in space. Our Sun is not a member, however, just passing through. Considering it's location in the galaxy our Sun has a very strange velocity, we probably had a close encounter with another star a few billion years ago which gravitationally accelerated the Sun and the solar system.

After half a billion years or so, a classic open cluster such as the Pleiades? or the Hyades? (both in Taurus) tends to be disturbed, setting its stars moving at slightly different speeds and so causing them to drift apart exactly like the one in Ursa Major has done. When this happens, the cluster becomes a stream of stars, not close enough to be a cluster but all related and moving in very similar directions at similar speeds.

After a billion or so years, the cluster is totally lost. Some stars will be on the far side of the galaxy, some on the near. The sun's original cluster is like this, there is no way to tell which are former members and which just happened to have formed at the same time but somewhere else.

Extremely dense open clusters can stay together for longer, but no open cluster could stay together for the age of the Sun, five billion years.