New galactic star clusters discovered in the VVV survey. Candidates projected on the inner disk and bulge
Context. VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) is one of six ESO Public Surveys using the 4 meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VVV survey covers the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk, and one of the principal objectives is to search for new sta...
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Published in | Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) Vol. 569; pp. 1 - 25 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
EDP Sciences
01.09.2014
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Context. VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) is one of six ESO Public Surveys using the 4 meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VVV survey covers the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk, and one of the principal objectives is to search for new star clusters within previously unreachable obscured parts of the Galaxy. Aims. The primary motivation behind this work is to discover and analyze obscured star clusters in the direction of the inner Galactic disk and bulge. Methods. Regions of the inner disk and bulge covered by the VVV survey were visually inspected using composite JHKS color images to select new cluster candidates on the basis of apparent overdensities. DR1, DR2, CASU, and point spread function photometry of 10 × 10 arcmin fields centered on each candidate cluster were used to construct color–magnitude and color–color diagrams. Follow-up spectroscopy of the brightest members of several cluster candidates was obtained in order to clarify their nature. Results. We report the discovery of 58 new infrared cluster candidates. Fundamental parameters such as age, distance, and metallicity were determined for 20 of the most populous clusters. |
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Bibliography: | e-mail: jura.borissova@uv.cl ark:/67375/80W-V637MT82-6 publisher-ID:aa22483-13 dkey:10.1051/0004-6361/201322483 istex:F98A76F3FC814DF37CA235FFC27901492D8C4D3B Based on observations gathered as part of observing programs: 179.B-2002,VIRCAM, VISTA at ESO, Paranal Observatory; NTT at ESO, La Silla Observatory (programs 087.D-0490A and 089.D-0462A) and with the SOAR telescope at the NOAO (program CN2012A-045). bibcode:2014A%26A...569A..24B ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0004-6361 1432-0746 |
DOI: | 10.1051/0004-6361/201322483 |