Peering into the Heart of the Giant Molecular Cloud G148.24+00.41: A Deep Near-infrared View of the Newly Hatched Cluster FSR 655
Vineet Rawat (Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India), M. R. Samal (Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India), D. K. Ojha (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India), Brajesh Kumar (South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, People’s Republic of China, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital, India), Saurabh Sharma (Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital, India), J. Jose (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research), Ram Sagar (Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India, and), R. K. Yadav (National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand)
arXiv:2408.12969v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We present a detailed near-infrared study of an embedded cluster located in the hub of the giant molecular cloud G148.24+00.41 of mass $sim$10$^5$ $M_odot$, with the TANSPEC instrument mounted on the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope. The hub is located near the geometric center of the cloud and represents its most massive clump. We studied the central 2 pc $times$ 2 pc area of the hub with 5$sigma$ limiting magnitudes of 20.5, 20.1, and 18.6 mag in the $J$, $H$, and $K_s$ bands, respectively. Using the $K_s$-band luminosity function and comparing it with the synthetic clusters, we obtained the age of the cluster as $sim$0.5 Myr, which was found to corroborate well with the visual extinction versus the age of nearby embedded clusters. We find that the present mass of the cluster is around $sim$180 $M_odot$, and the cluster is currently forming stars at a rate of $sim$330 $M_odot$ $rm{Myr}^{-1}$, with an efficiency of $sim$20%. The cluster is connected to an extended gas reservoir through a filamentary network; thus, we hypothesize that the cluster has the potential to become a richer cluster in a few Myr of time.arXiv:2408.12969v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We present a detailed near-infrared study of an embedded cluster located in the hub of the giant molecular cloud G148.24+00.41 of mass $sim$10$^5$ $M_odot$, with the TANSPEC instrument mounted on the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope. The hub is located near the geometric center of the cloud and represents its most massive clump. We studied the central 2 pc $times$ 2 pc area of the hub with 5$sigma$ limiting magnitudes of 20.5, 20.1, and 18.6 mag in the $J$, $H$, and $K_s$ bands, respectively. Using the $K_s$-band luminosity function and comparing it with the synthetic clusters, we obtained the age of the cluster as $sim$0.5 Myr, which was found to corroborate well with the visual extinction versus the age of nearby embedded clusters. We find that the present mass of the cluster is around $sim$180 $M_odot$, and the cluster is currently forming stars at a rate of $sim$330 $M_odot$ $rm{Myr}^{-1}$, with an efficiency of $sim$20%. The cluster is connected to an extended gas reservoir through a filamentary network; thus, we hypothesize that the cluster has the potential to become a richer cluster in a few Myr of time.