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Distance estimates to five open clusters based on 2mass data of red clump giants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2013
Abstract
Red clump (RC) giants are excellent standard candles in the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The near-infrared K-band intrinsic luminosity of RC giants exhibits only a small variance and a weak dependence on chemical composition and age. In addition, RCs are often easily recognizable in the color–magnitude diagrams of open clusters, which renders them extremely useful distance indicators for some intermediate-age or old open clusters. Here we determine the distance moduli of five Galactic open clusters covering a range of metallicities and ages, based on RC giants in the cluster regions using 2mass photometric data. We compare our result with those from main-sequence fitting and also briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of RC-based cluster distance determination.
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- Type
- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S289: Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances , August 2012 , pp. 367 - 370
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013
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