Astronomers investigate open cluster Messier 37 and its surroundings

Tomasz Nowakowski is a member of the physics.org community.

The open cluster of Messier 37 has been studied by an international team of astronomy. The researchers were able to identify the hottest white dwarf candidate members of the cluster by completing a comprehensive catalog of more than 200,000 sources. A paper detailing the study was published on arXiv.org.

A group of stars are bound to each other by a giant cloud of atoms. More than a thousand of them have been found in the Milky Way, and scientists are still looking for more. Studying OCs in detail can help us understand the formation and evolution of our galaxy.

The richest OC in the constellation Auriga is located at a distance of about 4,500 light years from Earth. The total mass of the cluster is more than 1,500 solar mass. The age of Messier 37 is thought to be between 400 and 550 million years old.

There is a large population of white dwarf candidates in Messier 37. A very massive object with a mass of around 1.28 solar mass has been confirmed by follow up studies. There are a number of reasons why the white dwarf census of Messier 37 is incomplete.

In order to identify more white dwarfs, a group of astronomer led by Massimo Griggio of the University of Ferrara in Italy used a telescope in Asiago.

A procedure to calibrate the geometric distortion of the instrument was developed using observations of M37 collected at the Asiago Schmidt telescope.

Seven isolated and hot white dwarfs were identified by the team. Four out of seven candidates are likely or very likely members of the group.

One of the newly found white dwarfs was confirmed as a hot object by the follow-up low-resolution spectrum. The star was previously thought to be the central star of the planetary nebula.

As a result of the study, the researchers were able to complete a catalog of over 200,000 sources in a 2.0 by 2.0 deg 2 region. The sources in this catalog have photometry in the same way as the ones in the Gaia catalog. The data from the IGAS is complemented by it.

More information: M. Griggio et al, Astro-photometric study of M37 with Gaia and wide-field ugi-imaging. arXiv:2207.03179v1 [astro-ph.SR], arxiv.org/abs/2207.03179

There is a science network.