Search for and Characterization of Open Clusters Toward the Galactic Anti-center with Pan-STARRS1

TL;DR

This study utilizes the deep Pan-STARRS1 survey data to identify and characterize previously uncharted open clusters toward the Galactic anti-center, significantly expanding the known catalog of such clusters.

Contribution

It introduces a star-count algorithm applied to Pan-STARRS1 data, discovering 949 new open cluster candidates in a specific Galactic region.

Findings

Identified 949 new open cluster candidates.

Detected 79 known open clusters among the density enhancements.

Demonstrated the survey's sensitivity surpasses previous efforts by 100 times.

Abstract

We have used a star-count algorithm based the Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System 3$\pi$ survey data aim to identify and characterize uncharted open clusters (OCs). With limiting magnitudes of about 22 mag in \gps, \rps, \ips\ bands and about 20 mag in \zps\ and \yps\ bands, our data are 100 times more sensitive than currently available surveys. We analyzed a trial region within $20\deg\times20\deg$ field toward the Galactic anticenter and found 1660 density enhancement regions of which 79 (out of 129) are known OCs, and 949 are OC candidates.