Question about Eagle Nebula

[Codger]

My wanderings have taken me to the Eagle nebula, and so I stopped off at Eagle's Landing.

I can see a strange rectangular cluster of stars, much denser than the surrounding areas.

I'm sure somebody knows what this is?

 

[SMcA]

My wanderings have taken me to the Eagle nebula, and so I stopped off at Eagle's Landing.

I can see a strange rectangular cluster of stars, much denser than the surrounding areas.

I'm sure somebody knows what this is?

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/QGJr003.png

Very bright stars in a straight line.
I read here quite some time ago that they were an artifact of the Stella Forge (the system that generates the galaxy). I don't know if that is true or not but you will find them throughout the galaxy.

 

[Codger]

Thanks for the info. I assumed it was some sort of glitch or artifact, or possibly hand-placed stuff. I've just never run into it before.

 

[Caldeon]

When i remember correctly these are Stars (F or G class) from the 2Mass sky survey. These are real stars from real data. The cluster is implemented like it was seen from earth, which leads to strange looking formations from other POV. Same effect is seen with the O Class cluster at NGC 7822 or the cluster of M-stars in the orion nebula.

When i remember correctly otherwise it could also be a strange artifact of the stellar forge

 

[daver4470]

As I'm in the middle of that group of stars right now (because I was curious too, but from the Omega Nebula side).... yes, it's the 2MASS bunch. I think what you're seeing is, in part, the difference between reality (the stars that are there) and procedural generation (the stars the system creates) -- in reality, stars aren't randomly distributed by class in a fixed volume. They can be clumpy and odd and clustery, and a given volume of space doesn't necessarily have the "proper" ratio distribution between OBAFGKM and such within it.

It's a fun exploration area, as it's mostly big (O/A) stars with a good number of neutron stars as well. Don't expect any first discoveries, but there's definitely money to be made and pretty screenshots to be taken there. (I've heard there are black holes here, too, but have yet to actually find one.)

Edit: also, that is a mighty pretty screenshot.