Friday, 25th July at 2.00pm at the JAC
Dirk Froebrich
School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, U.K.
"Exploiting 2MASS: A Systematic Search for and Discovery of new Galactic
(Globular) Clusters"
ABSTRACT:
In this talk I will present a summary of our long term efforts to identify
and classify so far unknown stellar clusters in the Milky Way. We have used star
density maps based on JHK 2MASS data to identify star clusters. The maps
were searched automatically and manually for local star density
enhancements visible in the H-band and at least in one of the other bands.
All cluster candidates were cross-correlated with the SIMBAD database to
identify known clusters. 1021 new star cluster candidates are found. Based
on the known open and globular clusters in the sample, the most probable new
globular cluster candidates were identified. The distribution of clusters
on the sky showed that they are clustered on scales of 0.7deg or 12-25pc, a
typical size for molecular clouds.
The second part of the talk will
concentrate on our (and other groups) efforts to determine more
detailed cluster parameters (distance, age, metallicity, reddening). This
includes the discovery of 4 new globular clusters and 9 old open clusters
with ages of more than 1Gyr. The talk will conclude with a brief outlook of
how our cluster sample can be used to gain insight into large scale galactic
star formation and molecular cloud properties.
Relevant web site:
A list of FSR clusters
Related Paper:
Froebrich, D., Scholz, A., Raftery, C.L., 2007, A systematic survey for
infrared star clusters with |b| %lt 20deg using 2MASS, MNRAS, 374, 399
Froebrich, D., Meusinger, H., Scholz, A., 2007, FSR1735 -- A new globular
cluster candidate in the inner Galaxy, MNRAS, 377, L54
Froebrich, D., Meusinger, H., Davis, C.J., 2008, FSR0190 - Another old
distant galactic cluster, MNRAS, 383, 45
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