Star formation in the outer Galaxy: membership and fundamental parameters of the young open cluster NGC 1893

TL;DR

This study investigates the properties and membership of the young open cluster NGC 1893 in the outer Galaxy, revealing a rich population of young stars and a high disk fraction, indicating active star formation despite less favorable conditions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multiwavelength analysis of NGC 1893 in the outer Galaxy, demonstrating that rich young clusters can form in such environments.

Findings

Cluster distance is 3.6±0.2 kpc.

Disk fraction of about 70%.

Active star formation observed despite outer Galaxy location.

Abstract

Different environmental conditions can play a crucial role in determining final products of the star formation process and in this context, less favorable activities of star formation are expected in the external regions of our Galaxy. We studied the properties of the young open cluster NGC 1893 located about 12 Kpc from the galactic center, to investigate how different physical conditions can affect the process of star formation. By adopting a multiwavelength approach, we compiled a catalog extending from X-rays to NIR data to derive the cluster membership. In addition, optical and NIR photometric properties are used to evaluate the cluster parameters. We find 415 diskless candidate members plus 1061 young stellar objects with a circumstellar disk or class II candidate members, 125 of which are also Halpha emitters. Considering the diskless candidate members, we find that the cluster distance is 3.6$\pm$0.2 kpc and the mean interstellar reddening is E(B-V)=0.6$\pm$0.1 with evidence of differential reddening in the whole surveyed region. NGC 1893 contains a conspicuous population of pre-main sequence stars together with the well studied main sequence cluster population; we found a disk fraction of about 70% similar to that found in clusters of similar age in the solar neighbour and then, despite expected unfavorable conditions for star formation, we conclude that very rich young clusters can form also in the outer regions of our Galaxy.