Open cluster family

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In astronomy, an open cluster family is a group of approximately coeval (age range 30 Myr) young open star clusters located in a relatively small region of the Galactic disk (radius 250 pc).

Astronomy natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects

Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets; the phenomena also includes supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, all phenomena that originate outside Earth's atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A branch of astronomy called cosmology is the study of the Universe as a whole.

The abbreviation myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of 1,000,000 (i.e. 1×106) years, or 31.536 teraseconds.

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Introduction

Open clusters do not form in isolation but in complexes (Efremov 1978), within star forming regions. When age, spatial distribution, and kinematics are taken into account simultaneously, a significant number of known young open clusters are found in groups.

Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space, sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions", collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, star formation includes the study of the interstellar medium (ISM) and giant molecular clouds (GMC) as precursors to the star formation process, and the study of protostars and young stellar objects as its immediate products. It is closely related to planet formation, another branch of astronomy. Star formation theory, as well as accounting for the formation of a single star, must also account for the statistics of binary stars and the initial mass function. Most stars do not form in isolation but as part of a group of stars referred as star clusters or stellar associations.

Kinematics is a branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies without considering the forces that caused the motion. Kinematics, as a field of study, is often referred to as the "geometry of motion" and is occasionally seen as a branch of mathematics. A kinematics problem begins by describing the geometry of the system and declaring the initial conditions of any known values of position, velocity and/or acceleration of points within the system. Then, using arguments from geometry, the position, velocity and acceleration of any unknown parts of the system can be determined. The study of how forces act on bodies falls within kinetics, not kinematics. For further details, see analytical dynamics.

Piskunov et al. (2006) found evidence for four open cluster complexes (OCCs) of different ages containing up to a few tens of clusters. The existence of at least five dynamical families of young open clusters in the Milky Way disk has been confirmed using statistical analysis by de la Fuente Marcos and de la Fuente Marcos (2008). They are, in order of increasing distance: Orion, Scutum-Sagittarius, Cygnus, Scorpius, and Cassiopeia-Perseus. These families are associated to the Galactic spiral structure, they are short-lived as they disperse in a relatively short timescale and they are progenitors of classical superclusters, moving groups, and stellar streams (de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos 2008).

Milky Way spiral galaxy containing our Solar System

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The name describes the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος. From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years (ly). It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and more than 100 billion planets. The Solar System is located at a radius of 26,490 light-years from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The galactic center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, assumed to be a supermassive black hole of 4.100 million solar masses.

Orion (constellation) Constellation straddling the celestial equator

Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky. It was named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Its brightest stars are the supergiants: blue-white Rigel and red Betelgeuse.

Scutum (constellation) constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere

Scutum is a small constellation introduced in the seventeenth century. Its name is Latin for shield.

The Cassiopeia-Perseus open cluster family is located 2 kpc from the Sun between the constellations of Cassiopeia and Perseus, embedded in the Perseus spiral arm (de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos 2009). The structure roughly defines a plane that is inclined almost 30° with respect to the plane of the Milky Way. It has a diameter of about 600 pc and includes 10 to 20 members. Most candidate members are located below the Galactic disk and moving away from it. It started to form about 20 to 40 Myr (1 Myr = 106 yr) ago.

See also

A stellar association is a very loose star cluster, looser than both open clusters and globular clusters. Stellar associations will normally contain from 10 to 100 or more stars. The stars share a common origin, but have become gravitationally unbound and are still moving together through space. Associations are primarily identified by their common movement vectors and ages. Identification by chemical composition is also used to factor in association memberships.

Open cluster group of "sibling" stars that are loosely gravitationally bound to one another

An open cluster is a group of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way Galaxy, and many more are thought to exist. They are loosely bound by mutual gravitational attraction and become disrupted by close encounters with other clusters and clouds of gas as they orbit the galactic center. This can result in a migration to the main body of the galaxy and a loss of cluster members through internal close encounters. Open clusters generally survive for a few hundred million years, with the most massive ones surviving for a few billion years. In contrast, the more massive globular clusters of stars exert a stronger gravitational attraction on their members, and can survive for longer. Open clusters have been found only in spiral and irregular galaxies, in which active star formation is occurring.

In astronomy, an open cluster remnant (OCR) is the final stage in the evolution of an open star cluster.

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Galactic astronomy

Galactic astronomy is the study of the Milky Way galaxy and all its contents. This is in contrast to extragalactic astronomy, which is the study of everything outside our galaxy, including all other galaxies.

Spiral galaxy galaxy having a number of arms of younger stars that spiral out from the centre containing older ones

Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work The Realm of the Nebulae and, as such, form part of the Hubble sequence. Most spiral galaxies consist of a flat, rotating disk containing stars, gas and dust, and a central concentration of stars known as the bulge. These are often surrounded by a much fainter halo of stars, many of which reside in globular clusters.

Perseus (constellation) Constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere

Perseus is a constellation in the northern sky, being named after the Greek mythological hero Perseus. It is one of the 48 ancient constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and among the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is located near several other constellations named after ancient Greek legends surrounding Perseus, including Andromeda to the west and Cassiopeia to the north. Perseus is also bordered by Aries and Taurus to the south, Auriga to the east, Camelopardalis to the north, and Triangulum to the west. Some star atlases during the early 19th century also depicted Perseus holding the disembodied head of Medusa, whose asterism was named together as Perseus et Caput Medusae; however, this never came into popular usage.

A galactic halo is an extended, roughly spherical component of a galaxy which extends beyond the main, visible component. Several distinct components of galaxies comprise the halo:

Orion Arm Minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy; contains the Solar System

The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way some 3,500 light-years across and approximately 10,000 light-years in length, containing the Solar System, including the Earth. It is also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm, as well as Local Arm, Orion Bridge, and formerly, the Local Spur and Orion Spur.

Messier 18 Open cluster

Messier 18 or M18, also designated NGC 6613, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 and included in his list of comet-like objects. From the perspective of Earth, M18 is situated between the Omega Nebula (M17) and the Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24).

Messier 37 open cluster in the constellation Auriga

Messier 37 is the richest open cluster in the constellation Auriga. It is the brightest of three open clusters in Auriga and was discovered by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna before 1654. M37 was missed by French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil when he rediscovered M36 and M38 in 1749. French astronomer Charles Messier independently rediscovered M37 in September 1764 but all three clusters were recorded by Hodierna. It is classified as Trumpler type I,1,r or I,2,r.

Messier 48 Open cluster

Messier 48 or M48, also known as NGC 2548, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Hydra. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. There is no cluster in the position indicated by Messier. The value that he gave for the right ascension matches that of NGC 2548, however, his declination is off by five degrees. Credit for discovery is sometimes given instead to Caroline Herschel in 1783. Her nephew John Herschel described it as, "a superb cluster which fills the whole field; stars of 9th and 10th to the 13th magnitude – and none below, but the whole ground of the sky on which it stands is singularly dotted over with infinitely minute points". The brightest component is HIP 40348 at visual magnitude 8.3.

Galactic disc A component of disc galaxies comprising gas and stars

A galactic disc is a component of disc galaxies, such as spiral galaxies and lenticular galaxies. Galactic discs consist of a stellar component and a gaseous component. The stellar population of galactic discs tend to exhibit very little random motion with most of its stars undergoing nearly circular orbits about the galactic center. Discs can be fairly thin because the disc material's motion lies predominantly on the plane of the disc. The Milky Way's disc, for example is approximately 1 kpc thick but thickness can vary for discs in other galaxies.

The Monoceros Ring is a long, complex, ringlike filament of stars that wraps around the Milky Way three times. This is proposed to consist of a stellar stream torn from the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy by tidal forces as part of the process of merging with the Milky Way over a period of billions of years, although this view has long been disputed. The ring contains 100 million solar masses and is 200,000 light years long.

In astronomy, a RAMBO or robust association of massive baryonic objects is a dark cluster made of brown dwarfs or white dwarfs.

In astronomy, stellar kinematics is the observational study or measurement of the kinematics or motions of stars through space. The subject of stellar kinematics encompasses the measurement of stellar velocities in the Milky Way and its satellites as well as the measurement of the internal kinematics of more distant galaxies. Measurement of the kinematics of stars in different subcomponents of the Milky Way including the thin disk, the thick disk, the bulge, and the stellar halo provides important information about the formation and evolutionary history of our Galaxy. Kinematic measurements can also identify exotic phenomena such as hypervelocity stars escaping from the Milky Way, which are interpreted as the result of gravitational encounters of binary stars with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center.

NGC 637 open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia

NGC 637 is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Cassiopeia. It has a Trumpler classification of I2m and an angular diameter of 4.2′. At a distance of approximately 7,045 light years, this corresponds to a diameter of 9.8 light-years (3.0 pc). The estimated age of this cluster is 5–15 million years.

NGC 654 open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia

NGC 654 is an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. With apparent magnitude 6.5, it can be observed by binoculars. It is located 2,5° northeast of the star Delta Cassiopeiae. In the same low power field can also be seen the open clusters NGC 663 and NGC 659. It surrounds a 7th magnitude yellowish star, an F5Ia supergiant, which is a possible member of the group.

NGC 5316 open cluster in Centaurus

NGC 5316 is an open cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It was discovered by James Dunlop in 1826. Located approximately 4,000 light years away from Earth, it is located in the Carina-Sagittarius arm.

NGC 4103 open cluster in Crux

NGC 4103 is an open cluster in the constellation Crux. It was discovered by James Dunlop in 1826. It is located approximately 5,000 light years away from Earth, in the Carina-Sagittarius arm.

NGC 7160 open cluster in Cepheus

NGC 7160 is an open cluster in the constellation Cepheus. It was discovered by William Herschel on November 9, 1789. The cluster was also observed by John Herschel on October 7, 1829. It is a poor cluster and with little central concentration, with Trumpler class II3p. It is part of the stellar association Cepheus OB2, located one degree south-southwest of VV Cephei.

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