Photometric, astrometric, and spectroscopic survey of the old open cluster Praesepe

TL;DR

This study provides a comprehensive photometric, astrometric, and spectroscopic analysis of the Praesepe cluster, comparing its mass function with other clusters and presenting initial spectroscopic findings of low-mass members.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed multi-faceted survey of Praesepe, including a comparison of its mass function and preliminary spectroscopic data for low-mass stars.

Findings

Praesepe's mass function compared with Pleiades, alpha Per, and Hyades.

Preliminary spectroscopic results for low-mass Praesepe members.

Optical spectrum obtained for the first L dwarf in Praesepe.

Abstract

We analysed the wide-field near-infrared survey of the Praesepe cluster carried out by the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Galactic Clusters Survey (GCS) and released by the Data Release 9 (DR9). We compare our Praesepe mass function (MF) with the ones of the Pleiades, alpha Per, and the Hyades. We also present preliminary results of a spectroscopic follow-up for the low mass members (M=<0.1Msol) in Praesepe, alpha Per and Pleiades using the Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (OSIRIS) mounted on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We also present the optical spectrum of the first L dwarf in Praesepe.