Bibcode
Puga, E.; Marín-Franch, A.; Najarro, F.; Lenorzer, A.; Herrero, A.; Acosta-Pulido, J. A.; Chavarría, L. A.; Bik, A.; Figer, D.; Ramírez-Alegría, S.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 517, id.A2
Advertised on:
7
2010
Journal
Citations
25
Refereed citations
23
Description
Aims: The characterisation of the stellar population in young
high-mass star-forming regions allows fundamental cluster properties
like distance and age to be constrained. These are essential when using
high-mass clusters as probes for conducting Galactic studies.
Methods: NGC 7538 is a star-forming region with an embedded stellar
population unearthed only in the near-infrared (NIR). 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 subarcsecond JHKs photometry of
the region using the imaging mode of the same instrument.
Results: 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 H ii 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 1.7 × 103
Msun for the older population.
Based on observations made with the WHT operated on the island of La
Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de
los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
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