5,147 research outputs found
Photometry of a Galactic field at l = 232, b = -6. The old open cluster Auner 1, the Norma-Cygnus spiral arm and the signature of the warped Galactic Thick Disk
We perform a detailed photometric study of the stellar populations in a
Galactic Field at l = 232, b = -6 in the Canis Major (CMa) constellation. We
present the first U,B,V,I photometry of the old open cluster Auner1 and
determine it to be 3.25 Gyr old and to lie at 8.9 kpc from the Sun. In the
background of the cluster, at more than 9 kpc, we detect a young population
most probably associated to the Norma Cygnus spiral arm. Furthermore, we detect
the signature of an older population and identify its Turn Off and Red Giant
Branch. This population is found to have a mean age of 7 Gyrs and a mean
metallicity of Z = 0.006 . We reconstruct the geometry of the stellar
distribution and argue that this older population - often associated to the
Canis Major {\it galaxy}- belongs in fact to the warped old thin/thick disk
component along this line of sight.Comment: 19 pages, 7 eps figures (some degraded), accepted for publication in
the Astronomical Journa
The edge of the young Galactic disc
In this work we report and discuss the detection of two distant diffuse
stellar groups in the third Galactic quadrant. They are composed of young
stars, with spectral types ranging from late O to late B, and lie at
galactocentric distances between 15 and 20 kpc. These groups are located in the
area of two cataloged open clusters (VdB-Hagen~04 and Ruprecht~30), projected
towards the Vela-Puppis constellations, and within the core of the Canis Major
over-density. Their reddening and distance has been estimated analyzing their
color-color and color-magnitude diagrams, derived from deep photometry.
The existence of young star aggregates at such extreme distances from the
Galactic center challenges the commonly accepted scenario in which the Galactic
disc has a sharp cut-off at about 14 kpc from the Galactic center, and
indicates that it extends to much greater distances (as also supported by
recent detection of CO molecular complexes well beyond this distance). While
the groups we find in the area of Ruprecht~30 are compatible with the Orion and
Norma-Cygnus spiral arms, respectively, the distant group we identify in the
region of VdB-Hagen~4 lies in the external regions of the Norma-Cygnus arm, at
a galactocentric distance (20 kpc) where no young stars had been detected
so far in the optical.Comment: 45 pages, 11 eps figure, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
On the existence of young embedded clusters at high Galactic latitude
Careful analyses of photometric and star count data available for the nine
putative young clusters identified by Camargo et al. (2015, 2016) at high
Galactic latitudes reveal that none of the groups contain early-type stars, and
most are not significant density enhancements above field level. 2MASS colours
for stars in the groups match those of unreddened late-type dwarfs and giants,
as expected for contamination by (mostly) thin disk objects. A simulation of
one such field using only typical high latitude foreground stars yields a
colour-magnitude diagram that is very similar to those constructed by Camargo
et al. (2015, 2016) as evidence for their young groups as well as the means of
deriving their reddenings and distances. Although some of the fields are
coincident with clusters of galaxies, one must conclude that there is no
evidence that the putative clusters are extremely young stellar groups.Comment: Accepted for publication (MNRAS
UB CCD photometry of the old, metal rich, open clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6819 and NGC 7142
We report on a UV-oriented imaging survey in the fields of the old,
metal-rich open clusters, NGC 6791, NGC 6819 and NGC 7142. These three clusters
represent both very near and ideal stellar aggregates to match the distinctive
properties of the evolved stellar populations, as in elliptical galaxies and
bulges of spirals. The CMD of the three clusters is analyzed in detail, with
special emphasis to the hot stellar component. We report, in this regard, one
new extreme horizontal-branch star candidate in NGC 6791. For NGC 6819 and
7142, the stellar luminosity function points to a looser radial distribution of
faint lower Main Sequence stars, either as a consequence of cluster dynamical
interaction with the Galaxy or as an effect of an increasing fraction of binary
stars toward the cluster core, as actually observed in NGC 6791 too.Comment: 12 pages with 15 Figures & 5 Tables. To appear in the Astronomical
Journa
Blue Straggler Stars in Galactic Open Clusters and the effect of field star contamination
We investigate the distribution of Blue Straggler stars in the field of three
open star clusters. The main purpose is to highlight the crucial role played by
general Galactic disk fore-/back-ground field stars, which are often located in
the same region of the Color Magnitude Diagram as Blue Straggler stars. We
analyze photometry taken from the literature of 3 open clusters of
intermediate/old age rich in Blue Straggler stars, and which are projected in
the direction of the Perseus arm, and study their spatial distribution and the
Color Magnitude Diagram. As expected, we find that a large portion of the Blue
Straggler population in these clusters are simply young field stars belonging
to the spiral arm. This result has important consequences on the theories of
the formation and statistics of Blue Straggler stars in different population
environments: open clusters, globular clusters or dwarf galaxies. As previously
emphasized by many authors, a detailed membership analysis is mandatory before
comparing the Blue Straggler population in star clusters against theoretical
models. Moreover, these sequences of young field stars (blue plumes) are
potentially powerful tracers of Galactic structure which require further
consideration.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figurs, in press as Research Note in A&
Real-time marker-less multi-person 3D pose estimation in RGB-Depth camera networks
This paper proposes a novel system to estimate and track the 3D poses of
multiple persons in calibrated RGB-Depth camera networks. The multi-view 3D
pose of each person is computed by a central node which receives the
single-view outcomes from each camera of the network. Each single-view outcome
is computed by using a CNN for 2D pose estimation and extending the resulting
skeletons to 3D by means of the sensor depth. The proposed system is
marker-less, multi-person, independent of background and does not make any
assumption on people appearance and initial pose. The system provides real-time
outcomes, thus being perfectly suited for applications requiring user
interaction. Experimental results show the effectiveness of this work with
respect to a baseline multi-view approach in different scenarios. To foster
research and applications based on this work, we released the source code in
OpenPTrack, an open source project for RGB-D people tracking.Comment: Submitted to the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automatio
NGC 4337: an over-looked old cluster in the inner disc of the Milky Way
Galactic open clusters do not survive long in the high density regions of the
inner Galactic disc. Inside the solar ring only 11 open clusters are known with
ages older than one Gyr. We show here, basing on deep, high-quality photometry,
that NGC 4337, contrary to earlier findings, is indeed an old open cluster. The
cluster is located very close to the conspicuous star cluster Trumpler 20, as
well mis-classified in the past, and that has received so much attention in
recent years. NGC 4337 shows a significant clump of He-burning stars which was
not detected previously. Its beautiful color-magnitude diagram is strikingly
similar to the one of the classical old open clusters IC 4651, NGC 752, and NGC
3680, and this suggests similar age and composition. A spectroscopic study is
much needed to confirm our findings. This, in turn, would also allow us to
better define the inner disc radial abundance gradient and its temporal
evolution.To this aim, a list of clump star candidates is provided.Comment: 5 pages, 4 eps figures, in press as MNRAS Lette
Open clusters in the Third Galactic Quadrant. II. The intermediate age open clusters NGC 2425 and NGC 2635
We analyse CCD broad band (UBV(RI)c) photometric data obtained in the fields
of the poorly studied open clusters NGC 2425 and NGC 2635. Both clusters are
found to be of intermediate age thus increasing the population of open clusters
known to be of the age of, or older than, the Hyades. More explicitly, we find
that NGC 2425 is a 2.2 Gyr old cluster, probably of solar metallicity, located
at 3.5 kpc from the Sun. NGC 2635 is a Hyades age (600 Myr) cluster located at
a distance of 4.0 kpc from the Sun. Its Colour Magnitude Diagram reveals that
it is extremely metal poor for its age and position, thus making it a very
interesting object in the context of Galactic Disk chemical evolution models.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures. Figure quality has been quiet degraded.
Accepted by A&
No evidence of dark matter in the solar neighborhood
We measured the surface mass density of the Galactic disk at the solar
position, up to 4 kpc from the plane,by means of the kinematics of ~400 thick
disk stars. The results match the expectations for the visible mass only, and
no dark matter is detected in the volume under analysis. The current models of
dark matter halo are excluded with a significance higher than 5sigma, unless a
highly prolate halo is assumed, very atypical in cold dark matter simulations.
The resulting lack of dark matter at the solar position challenges the current
models.Comment: Proceeding of the first binational Sochias-AAA meeting, held in San
Juan, Argentin
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