SIMBAD references

2008ApJ...683L.155M - Astrophys. J., 683, L155-L158 (2008/August-3)

Discovery of a young massive stellar cluster near HESS J1813-178.

MESSINEO M., FIGER D.F., DAVIES B., RICH R.M., VALENTI E. and KUDRITZKI R.P.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present the serendipitous discovery of a young stellar cluster in the Galactic disk at l=12°. Using Keck/NIRSPEC, we obtained high- and low-resolution spectroscopy of several stars in the cluster, and we identified one red supergiant and two blue supergiants. The radial velocity of the red supergiant provides a kinematic cluster distance of 4.7±0.4 kpc, implying luminosities of the stars consistent with their spectral types. Together with the known Wolf-Rayet star located 2.4' from the cluster center, the presence of the red supergiant and the blue supergiants suggests a cluster age of 6-8 Myr and an initial mass of ≳2000 M. Several stars in the cluster are coincident with X-ray sources, including the blue supergiants and the Wolf-Rayet star. This is indicative of a high binary fraction and is reminiscent of the massive young cluster Westerlund 1. The cluster is coincident with two supernova remnants, SNR G12.72-0.0 and G12.82-0.02, and the highly magnetized pulsar associated with the TeV γ-ray source HESS J1813-178. The mixture of spectral types suggests that the progenitors of these objects had initial masses of 20-30 M.

Abstract Copyright:

Journal keyword(s): Infrared: Stars - Stars: Evolution - Stars: Supernovae: General - X-Rays: Stars

Nomenclature: Text: [MFD2008] Stellar Cluster. Fig.1, Table 1: [MFD2008] NN (Nos 1-11).

Simbad objects: 24

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