HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/NEAR-INFRARED CAMERA AND MULTI-OBJECT SPECTROMETER OBSERVATIONS OF THE GLIMPSE9 STELLAR CLUSTER

Journal Article · Sun Jan 10 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/708/2/1241· OSTI ID:21392411

Messineo, Maria; Figer, Donald F; Davies, Ben; Trombley, Christine ^[1]; Kudritzki, R P ^[2]; Rich, R Michael ^[3]; MacKenty, John ^[4]

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1. Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, 54 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5604 (United States)
2. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
3. Physics and Astronomy Building, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 (United States)
4. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)

We present Hubble Space Telescope/Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer photometry, and low-resolution K-band spectra of the GLIMPSE9 stellar cluster. The newly obtained color-magnitude diagram shows a cluster sequence with H - K{sub S} = approx1 mag, indicating an interstellar extinction A{sub K{sub s}} = 1.6 +- 0.2 mag. The spectra of the three brightest stars show deep CO band heads, which indicate red supergiants with spectral type M1-M2. Two 09-B2 supergiants are also identified, which yield a spectrophotometric distance of 4.2 +- 0.4 kpc. Presuming that the population is coeval, we derive an age between 15 and 27 Myr, and a total cluster mass of 1600 +- 400 M{sub sun}, integrated down to 1 M{sub sun}. In the vicinity of GLIMPSE9 are several H II regions and supernova remnants, all of which (including GLIMPSE9) are probably associated with a giant molecular cloud (GMC) in the inner galaxy. GLIMPSE9 probably represents one episode of massive star formation in this GMC. We have identified several other candidate stellar clusters of the same complex.

• OSTI ID: 21392411
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 708, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/708/2/1241; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CAMERAS
CARBON MONOXIDE
COLOR
GALAXIES
MASS
PHOTOMETRY
SPECTRA
SPECTROMETERS
SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
TELESCOPES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
EVOLUTION
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES