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An open cluster is a relatively low-mass group of stars formed together, typically in a galactic disk. Two-body relaxation, stellar evaporation, and external tidal disturbances disperse many open clusters on much shorter times than the lifetimes of their low-mass member stars.

Many open clusters are weakly bound and are dispersed by two-body relaxation, stellar evaporation and tidal heating, including encounters with molecular clouds in the galactic disk, so their present age histogram preferentially retains young survivors. More massive compact globular clusters can survive much longer, while the released low-mass stars remain as old field stellar populations: disruption removes clusters from the catalogue without removing their stars from the disc.

For a young open cluster, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram contains a populated main sequence reaching hot, luminous, high-mass stars, with a high-mass main-sequence turnoff determined by its age. Cool low-mass members may still lie on tracks of pre-main-sequence stars above the lower main sequence. Depending on how young the cluster is, a few evolved blue or red supergiants may already be present; an extremely young cluster need not have any. It lacks the dominant old low-mass red-giant and horizontal-branch populations of an old globular cluster.

A star cluster is a gravitationally associated group of stars formed in a relatively compact region. Open clusters and globular clusters provide populations whose members have broadly related formation histories, making them useful laboratories for stellar evolution. Membership is tested using parallax, proper motion and, where available, radial velocity, rather than apparent proximity on the sky alone. A cluster's Hertzsprung-Russell diagram then compares stars of different masses at a shared distance; its main-sequence turnoff helps estimate stellar age. Space-based astrometry sharpens both membership selection and these evolutionary sequences, although some clusters contain multiple stellar populations.^[ref]