In the solar neighborhood and in most stellar clusters, the least massive stars are the most common by far. Our observations with [the Very Large Telescope in Chile] show this is not the case for Messier 12. |
It tells us that the orbit [for the cluster] we had before was simply wrong. |
Say you see 25,000 massive stars, you infer that there will be 100,000 lighter ones, even if you don't see them. |
The laws of nature are simply such that in a molecular cloud there are just a few big clumps and quite many more smaller clumps. |