We have obtained VI photometry for two low Galactic latitude star clusters: BH 176 and AM-2, using the 2.2m and the 3.5m NTT telescopes at ESO. Their VI colour-magnitude diagrams reveal that: BH 176 may be a globular cluster, or a border line object between a globular cluster and a disk cluster, showing a red horizontal branch and an extended red giant branch. We estimate E(B-V)=0.77 and d_{sun}_=13.4kpc. AM-2 appears to be an intermediate age open cluster, for which a reddening E(B-V)=0.44 and d_{sun}_=12.4kpc are estimated. It is located in the outer regions of the Galactic disk.
We have obtained photometric time-series observations of stars in the open cluster NGC 2506, in order to study pulsating blue stragglers and eclipsing binaries. The data were obtained during a bi-site campaign in early 2005 which involved the Danish 1.54-m telescope at ESO, La Silla, and the Flemish Mercator telescope at La Palma, Spain. Based on these data we increased the number of known variables in NGC 2506 from 5 to 28 through the detection of 3 new pulsating blue stragglers, 15 gamma Doradus stars and 4 new eclipsing binaries, while one variable is of unknown type. We derived orbital periods for two previously known binaries, we performed a tentative mode-identification of the pulsating blue stragglers, and compared B- and I amplitude ratios and phase differences for the gamma Doradus stars to seismic models.
We look for common proper motion companions to stars of the nearby young {beta} Pictoris moving group. First, we compiled a list of 185 {beta} Pictoris members and candidate members from 35 representative works. Next, we used the Aladin and STILTS virtual observatory tools and the PPMXL proper motion and Washington Double Star catalogues to look for companion candidates. The resulting potential companions were subjects of a dedicated astro-photometric follow-up using public data from all-sky surveys. After discarding 67 sources by proper motion and 31 by colour-magnitude diagrams, we obtained a final list of 36 common proper motion systems. The binding energy of two of them is perhaps too small to be considered physically bound. Of the 36 pairs and multiple systems, eight are new, 16 have only one stellar component previously classified as a {beta} Pictoris member, and three have secondaries at or below the hydrogen-burning limit. Sixteen stars are reported here for the first time as moving group members. The unexpected large number of high-order multiple systems, 12 triples and two quadruples among 36 systems, may suggest a biased list of members towards close binaries or an increment of the high-order-multiple fraction for very wide systems.
We introduce a new binary detection technique, Binary INformation from Open Clusters using SEDs (binocs), which we show is able to determine reliable stellar multiplicity and masses over a much larger mass range than current approaches. This new technique determines accurate component masses of binary and single systems of the open clusters' main sequence by comparing observed magnitudes from multiple photometric filters to synthetic star spectral energy distributions (SEDs), allowing us to systematically probe the binary population for low-mass stars in clusters for eight well-studied open clusters. We provide new deep, infrared photometric catalogs (1.2-8.0 {mu}m) for the key open clusters NGC 1960 (M36), NGC 2099 (M37), NGC 2420, and NGC 2682 (M67), using observations from NOAO/NEWFIRM and Spitzer/IRAC. Using these deep multiwavelength catalogs, the binocs method is applied to these clusters to determine accurate component masses for unresolved cluster binaries. We explore binary fractions as a function of cluster age, Galactic location, and metallicity.
Thanks to their extensive and homogeneous sky coverage, deep, large-scale, multi-wavelength surveys are uniquely suited to statistically identify and map young star clusters in our Galaxy. Such studies are crucial to address themes like the initial mass function, or the modes and dynamics of star cluster formation and evolution. We aim to test a purely photometric approach to statistically identify a young clustered population embedded in a large population of field stars, with no prior knowledge on the nature of stars in the field. We conducted our blind test study on the NGC 2264 region, which hosts a well-known, richly populated young cluster (~3Myr-old) and several active star-forming sites. We selected a large (4 deg^2^) area around the NGC 2264 cluster, and assembled an extensive r, i, J catalog of the field from pre-existing large-scale surveys, notably Pan-STARRS1 and UKIDSS. We then mapped the stellar color locus on the (i-J, r-i) diagram to select M-type stars, which offer the following observational advantages with respect to more massive stars: i) they comprise a significant fraction of the Galactic stellar population; ii) their pre-main sequence phase lasts significantly longer than for higher-mass stars; iii) they exhibit the strongest luminosity evolution from the pre-main sequence to the main sequence; iv) their observed r, i, J colors provide a direct and empirical estimate of AV. A comparative analysis of the photometric and spatial properties of M-type stars as a function of AV enabled us to probe the structure and stellar content of our field. Using only r, i, J photometry, we could identify two distinct populations in our field: a diffuse field population and a clustered population in the center of the field. The presence of a concentration of occulting material, spatially associated with the clustered population, allowed us to derive an estimate of its distance (800-900pc) and age (0.5-5Myr); these values are overall consistent with the literature parameters for the NGC 2264 star-forming region. The extracted clustered population exhibits a hierarchical structure, with two main clumps and peaks in number density of objects around the most extincted locations within the field. An excellent agreement is found between the observed substructures for the clustered population and a map of the NGC 2264 subregions reported in the literature. Our selection of clustered members is coherent with the literature census of the NGC 2264 cluster for about 95% of the objects located in the inner regions of the field, where the estimated contamination rate by field stars in our sample is only 2%. In addition, the availability of a uniform dataset for a large area around the NGC 2264 region enabled us to discover a population of about a hundred stars with indications of statistical membership to the cluster, therefore extending the low-mass population census of NGC 2264 to distances of 10-15pc from the cluster cores. By making use solely of deep, multi-band (r, i, J) photometry, without assuming any further knowledge on the stellar population of our field, we were able to statistically identify and reconstruct the structure of a very young cluster that has been a prime target for star formation studies over several decades. The method tested here can be readily applied to surveys such as Pan-STARRS and the future LSST to undertake a first complete census of low-mass, young stellar populations down to distances of several kpc across the Galactic plane.
NGC 6611 and its parental cloud, the Eagle Nebula (M 16), are well-studied star-forming regions, thanks to their large content of both OB stars and stars with disks and the observed ongoing star formation. In our previous studies of the Eagle Nebula, we identified 834 disk-bearing stars associated with the cloud, after detecting their excesses in NIR bands from J band to 8.0um. In this paper, we study in detail the nature of a subsample of disk-bearing stars that show peculiar characteristics. They appear older than the other members in the V vs. V-I diagram, and/or they have one or more IRAC colors at pure photospheric values, despite showing NIR excesses, when optical and infrared colors are compared.
We present a catalogue of blue-straggler candidates in galactic open clusters. It is based on the inspection of the colour-magnitude diagrams of the clusters, and it updates and supersedes the first version (Ahumada & Lapasset, 1995, Cat. <J/A+AS/109/375>). A new bibliographical search was made for each cluster, and the resulting information is organised into two tables. Some methodological aspects have been revised, in particular those concerning the delimitation of the area in the diagrams where the stragglers are selected. A total of 1887 blue-straggler candidates have been found in 427 open clusters of all ages, doubling the original number. The catalogued stars are classified into two categories mainly according to membership information.
The very young sigma Orionis cluster (about 3Ma) is a cornerstone for the understanding of the formation of stars and substellar objects down to planetary masses. However, its stellar population is far to be completely known. This study has the purpose of identifying and characterising the most massive stars of sigma Orionis to complement current and future deep searches for brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects in the cluster. I have cross-correlated the sources in the Tycho and 2MASS catalogues in a region of 30arcmin radius with centre in the O-type star sigma Ori A. In the area, I have studied the membership in the Ori OB 1b Association of the brightest stars in the optical using astrometric, X-ray and infrared and optical photometric data from public catalogues and spectroscopic data from the literature. A list of 26 young stars, four candidate young stars and 16 probable foreground stars has arised from the study. Seven young stars probably harbour discs (four are new). There is no mass-dependence of the disc frequency in the cluster. I have derived for the first time the mass spectrum in sigma Orionis from 1.1 to 24M_{sun}_ (alpha=+2.0^+0.2^_-0.1_; roughly Salpeter-like). I have also provided additional proofs on the existence of several spatially superimposed stellar populations in the direction of sigma Orionis. Finally, the cluster may be closer and older than previously considered.
We present CCD photometry and proper motion studies of the two open star clusters NGC 1960 (M 36) and NGC 2194. Fitting isochrones to the colour magnitude diagrams, for NGC 1960 we found an age of 16Myr and a distance of roughly 1300 pc and for NGC 2194 550Myr and 2900pc, respectively. We combined membership determination by proper motions and statistical field star subtraction to derive the initial mass function of the clusters and found slopes of -1.23+/-0.17 for NGC 1960 and -1.33+/-0.29 for NGC 2194. Compared to other IMF studies of the intermediate mass range, these values indicate shallow mass functions. These tables present the complete data of the photometry (Tables 2 and 3) and the proper motion studies (Tables 7 and 9) of the two clusters.
The properties of the early-type stars in the core of the Westerlund 2 cluster are examined in order to establish a link between the cluster and the very massive Wolf-Rayet binary WR20a as well as the H II complex RCW 49. Photometric monitoring as well as spectroscopic observations of Westerlund 2 are used to search for light variability and to establish the spectral types of the early-type stars in the cluster core. The first light curves of the eclipsing binary WR 20a in B and V filters are analysed and a distance of 8kpc is inferred. Three additional eclipsing binaries, which are probable late O or early B-type cluster members, are discovered, but none of the known early O-type stars in the cluster displays significant photometric variability above 1% at the 1-sigma level. The twelve brightest O-type stars are found to have spectral types between O3 and O6.5, significantly earlier than previously thought. The distance of the early-type stars in Westerlund 2 is established to be in excellent agreement with the distance of WR20a, indicating that WR20a actually belongs to the cluster. Our best estimate of the cluster distance thus amounts to 8.0+/-1.4kpc. Despite the earlier spectral types, the currently known population of early-type stars in Westerlund 2 does not provide enough ionizing photons to account for the radio emission of the RCW 49 complex. This suggests that there might still exist a number of embedded early O-stars in RCW49.