By analyzing the information from ESA’s Gaia satellite and from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), Indian astronomers have investigated a galactic open cluster often known as NGC 5288. Outcomes of the examine, printed Could 17 on the arXiv preprint server, yield vital info relating to the properties of this cluster.
Open clusters (OCs), fashioned from the identical large molecular cloud, are teams of stars loosely gravitationally sure to at least one one other. Up to now, greater than 1,000 of them have been found within the Milky Way, and scientists are nonetheless in search of extra, hoping to seek out quite a lot of these stellar groupings. Increasing the listing of identified galactic open clusters and learning them intimately might be essential for bettering our understanding of the formation and evolution of our galaxy.
Positioned some 7,000 light years away within the constellation Circinus, NGC 5288 (often known as Cr 278) is a galactic OC found in 1835. It’s a wealthy, strongly absorbed cluster with a small however shiny nucleus and a low-density prolonged corona. Though NGC 5288 has been identified for practically two centuries, it’s a poorly studied cluster and there are nonetheless many discrepancies relating to its basic parameters.
Due to this fact, in an effort to shed extra gentle on its properties, a group of astronomers led by Ritika Sethi of the Indian Institute of Science Training and Analysis in Berhampur, India, determined to examine this cluster. “We have now investigated a poorly studied open cluster, NGC 5288, utilizing 2MASS and Gaia DR3 photometric and astrometric database,” the researchers wrote within the paper.
The information allowed the group to calculate the membership chances of stars within the discipline of NGC 5288 and to determine 304 cluster members with membership likelihood larger than 50%. Moreover, the astronomers estimated the elemental properties of the cluster, investigated its construction, performed a dynamical examine and derived its galactic orbit and orbital parameters.
The examine discovered that NGC 5288 is roughly 510 million years previous and is situated some 9,000 gentle years away, due to this fact farther than beforehand estimated. The imply correct motions of cluster members in right ascension and declination have been calculated to be −3.84 and −1.934 mas per yr, respectively. The interstellar reddening of NGC 5288 was estimated to be at a stage of 0.45.
In terms of the scale of NGC 5288, the astronomers discovered that the core radius and the cluster radius are roughly 1.36 and 5.5 arcmins, respectively. The mass perform slope for the cluster was discovered to be 1.39 for main-sequence (MS) stars (inside the mass vary 1.0–2.7 solar masses). The outcomes additionally point out that NGC 5288 is dynamically relaxed.
The researchers additionally built-in the orbits of the cluster for a time length equal to the cluster‘s age. Consequently, they discovered that NGC 5288 is born close to the galactic disk and strikes in a circular orbit with a really small scale peak.
Extra info:
Ritika Sethi et al, A deep examine of open cluster NGC 5288 utilizing photometric and astrometric information from Gaia DR3 and 2MASS, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.10099
Journal info:
arXiv
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