Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Galaxy Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-03-03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Galaxy Astrophysics
11 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted by A&A
Scientific paper
The characterisation of the stellar population toward young high-mass star-forming regions allows to constrain fundamental cluster properties like distance and age. These are essential when using high-mass clusters as probes to conduct Galactic studies. NGC 7538 is a star-forming region with an embedded stellar population only unearthed in the near-infrared. We present the first near-infrared spectro-photometric study of the candidate high-mass stellar content in NGC 7538. We obtained H and K spectra of 21 sources with both the multi-object and long-slit modes of LIRIS at the WHT, and complement these data with sub-arcsecond JHKs photometry of the region using the imaging mode of the same instrument. We find a wide variety of objects within the studied stellar population of NGC 7538. Our results discriminate between a stellar population associated to the HII region, but not contained within its extent, and several pockets of more recent star formation. We report the detection of CO bandhead emission toward several sources as well as other features indicative of a young stellar nature. We infer a spectro-photometric distance of 2.7+-0.5 kpc, an age spread in the range 0.5-2.2 Myr and a total mass ~1.7x10^3 Msun for the older population.
Acosta Pulido Jose Antonio
Alegría Ramírez S.
Bik Arjan
Chavarría L. A.
Figer Don
No associations
LandOfFree
Near-infrared spectroscopy in NGC 7538 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Near-infrared spectroscopy in NGC 7538, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Near-infrared spectroscopy in NGC 7538 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-685089