stellar population

stellar population

[′stel·ər ‚päp·yə′lā·shən] (astronomy) Either of two classes of stars, termed population I and population II; population I are relatively young stars, found in the arms of spiral galaxies, especially the blue stars of high luminosity; population II stars are the much older, more evolved stars of lower metallic content; many high luminosity red giants and many variable stars are members of population II.