Morphology of Galactic Open Clusters

Details Morphology of Galactic Open Clusters Morphology of Galactic Open Clusters

2004-08-02

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0408021v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

13 pages; 10 pages; accepted Astronomical Journal

Scientific paper

10.1086/424855

We analyzed the shapes of Galactic open clusters by the star counting technique with the 2MASS star catalog database. Morphological parameters such as the ellipticity and size have been derived via stellar density distribution, weighed by clustering probability. We find that most star clusters are elongated, even for the youngest star clusters of a few million years old, which are located near to the Galactic disk. The shapes of young star clusters must reflect the conditions in the parental molecular clouds and during the cluster formation process. As an open cluster ages, stellar dynamics cause the inner part of the cluster to circularize, but the overall radius gets larger and the stellar density becomes sparser. We discuss how internal relaxation process competes with Galactic external perturbation during cluster evolution.

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