SCYON Abstract

Received on May 30 2003

Luminosity and Mass Function of the Galactic open cluster NGC 2422

AuthorsL. Prisinzano (1), G. Micela (2), S. Sciortino (2), F. Favata (3)
Affiliation1 Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche ed Astronomiche, Università di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, I-90134 Palermo Italy,
2 INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo Italy
3 Astrophysics Division - Space Science Department of ESA, ESTEC, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Accepted byAstronomy & Astrophysics
Contactloredana@astropa.unipa.it
URLhttp://www.astropa.unipa.it
Links NGC 2422

Abstract

We present UBVR photometry of the open cluster NGC 2422 (age ~10^8 yr) down to a limiting magnitude V~19. These data are used to derive the Luminosity and Mass Functions and to study the cluster spatial distribution. By considering the color-magnitude diagram data and adopting a representative cluster main sequence, we obtained a list of candidate cluster members based on a photometric criterion.

Using a reference field region and an iterative procedure, a correction for contaminating field stars has been derived in order to obtain the Luminosity and the Mass Functions in the M=0.4-3.5 Mo range. By fitting the spatial distribution, we infer that a non-negligible number of cluster stars lies outside our investigated region. We have estimated a correction to the Mass Function of the cluster in order to take into account the "missing" cluster stars. The Present Day Mass Function of NGC 2422 can be represented by a power-law of index alpha = 3.07 ± 0.08 (rms) - the Salpeter Mass Function in this notation has index alpha = 2.35 - in the mass range 0.9 < M/Mo < 2.5. The index alpha and the total mass of the cluster are very similar to those of the Pleiades.