A WISE Survey of New Star Clusters in the Central Plane Region of the Milky Way

Abstract

We present the discovery of new star clusters in the central plane region ($|l|<30°$ and $|b|<6°$) of the Milky Way. In order to overcome the extinction problem and the spatial limit of previous surveys, we use the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data to find clusters. We also use other infrared survey data in the archive for additional analysis. We find 923 new clusters, of which 202 clusters are embedded clusters. These clusters are concentrated toward the Galactic plane and show a symmetric distribution with respect to the Galactic latitude. The embedded clusters show a stronger concentration to the Galactic plane than the non-embedded clusters. The new clusters are found more in the first Galactic quadrant, while previously known clusters are found more in the fourth Galactic quadrant. The spatial distribution of the combined sample of known clusters and new clusters is approximately symmetric with respect to the Galactic longitude. We estimate reddenings, distances, and relative ages of the 15 class A clusters using theoretical isochrones. Ten of them are relatively old (age $>800$ Myr) and five are young (age $\approx 4$ Myr).

arXiv comment29 pages, 16 figures, accepted to ApJ

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