Disintegration of the Aged Open Cluster Berkeley 17
- Department of Physics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani 333031, Rajasthan (India)
- Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, Assam (India)
We present the analysis of the morphological shape of Berkeley 17, the oldest known open cluster (∼10 Gyr), using the probabilistic star counting of Pan-STARRS point sources, and confirm its core-tail shape, plus an antitail, previously detected with the 2MASS data. The stellar population, as diagnosed by the color–magnitude diagram and theoretical isochrones, shows many massive members in the clusters core, whereas there is a paucity of such members in both of the tails. This manifests mass segregation in this aged star cluster with the low-mass members being stripped away from the system. It has been claimed that Berkeley 17 is associated with an excessive number of blue straggler candidates. A comparison of nearby reference fields indicates that about half of these may be field contamination.
- OSTI ID:
- 22679787
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 847; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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