Using data from ESA’s Gaia satellite, astronomers from the Istanbul University have examined a Galactic open cluster called NGC 2509. The results of the study, published on September 10 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide important insights into the structural and astrophysical parameters of this cluster.
Open clusters (OCs), which are formed from the same giant molecular cloud, are groups of stars loosely bound to each other by gravity. Over 1,000 of these clusters have been discovered in the Milky Way so far, and scientists are still searching for more in the hopes of finding a variety of these stellar groupings. Expanding the list of known galactic open clusters and studying them in detail could be crucial for improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of our galaxy.
NGC 2509 is an intermediate-age OC located in the constellation of Puppis. It is a poorly studied cluster, and many of its properties are still uncertain or unknown. For example, some studies suggest that NGC 2509 is located about 3,000 light years away, while others indicate a much larger distance of at least 8,000 light years. The cluster’s age estimates are also debated, ranging from 1 to 8 billion years.
That is why astronomers Talar Yontan and Seliz Koç from Istanbul University decided to investigate NGC 2509 by analyzing astrometric and photometric data from the latest Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3).
“We conducted a study of the intermediate-age open cluster NGC 2509 based on Gaia DR3 astrometric and photometric data. (…) We created the catalog of NGC 2509 by considering a 20 arcmin radius circular field from the cluster center,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
2023-09-20 00:00:04
Source from phys.org