: Has anyone ever studied whether individual stars are older as a group than stars associated with a galaxy or star group? It just occurred to me in looking at the photograph I have as my computer wallpaper (AAT55) that a spinning galaxy is like the game of crack the whip. In the game the last person tends to get spun off from the twisitng line. I wonder if individual stars have been spun off from the ends of galaxy arms. If so, they might be older in general than the stars in galaxies.