SCYON Abstract

Received on October 8 2006

A systematic survey for infrared star clusters
with |b|<20deg using 2MASS

AuthorsD. Froebrich (1,4), A. Scholz (2), and C.L. Raftery (3)
Affiliation
(1) Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Merrion Square 5, Dublin 2, Ireland
(2) University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Canada
(3) Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2 Ireland
(4) Centre for Astrophysics and Space Science, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NQ, UK
Accepted byMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Contactdf@star.kent.ac.uk
URLhttp://astro.kent.ac.uk/~df
Links

Abstract

We used star density maps obtained from 2MASS to obtain a sample of star clusters in the entire Galactic Plane with |b|<20deg. A total of 1788 star cluster candidates are identified in this survey. Among those are 681 previously known open clusters and 86 globular clusters. A statistical analysis indicates that our sample of 1021 new cluster candidates has a contamination of about 50%. Star cluster parameters are obtained by fitting a King profile to the star density. These parameters are used to statistically identify probable new globular cluster candidates in our sample. A detailed investigation of the projected distribution of star clusters in the Galaxy demonstrates that they show a clear tendency to cluster on spatial scales in the order of 12-25pc, a typical size for molecular clouds.