Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21915123v&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #151.23
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The young and massive Galactic open cluster Westerlund 2 has been a source of controversy because of the widely varying and inconsistent estimates for its distance. In this study we use Hubble Space Telescope multi-band photometry to make improved photometric measurements in the crowded cluster core where many of the most luminous members are now resolved into multiple stars. Using new stellar spectroscopy, we provide a more reliable distance measurement based on the mean spectroscopic parallax of 20 O-type member stars. The new spectrophotometric distance, after correction for reddening, is 7.38 ± 0.02 (random) ± 0.08 (systematic) kpc. We also use the HST optical photometry along with mid-infrared photometry to correct for reddening on a star-by-star basis. Differential reddening causes AV to vary from 1.11 mag to as much as 39.25 mag across the cluster. The best solar metallicity isochrone fit to the de-reddened color-magnitude diagram corresponds to an age of 1 - 3 Myr.
Kobulnicky Henry
Vargas Alvarez Carlos
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