A RAVE Investigation on Galactic open Clusters I. Radial velocities and metallicities

TL;DR

This study enhances the understanding of Galactic open clusters by providing new radial velocity and metallicity data, enabling the investigation of potential cluster groupings and hierarchical star formation in the Milky Way.

Contribution

It offers the first-time radial velocities for 37 open clusters and metallicities for 81 clusters, expanding the available data for studying cluster groupings.

Findings

Reliable radial velocities for 110 clusters, including 37 new measurements.

Metallicity data for 81 clusters, increasing the known sample by 69.

Extended the dataset to better analyze cluster groupings and star formation.

Abstract

Context. Galactic open clusters (OCs) mainly belong to the young stellar population in the Milky Way disk, but are there groups and complexes of OCs that possibly define an additional level in hierarchical star formation? Current compilations are too incomplete to address this question, especially regarding radial velocities (RVs) and metallicities ($[M/H]$). Aims. Here we provide and discuss newly obtained RV and $[M/H]$ data, which will enable us to reinvestigate potential groupings of open clusters and associations. Methods.We extracted additional RVs and $[M/H]$ from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) via a cross-match with the Catalogue of Stars in Open Cluster Areas (CSOCA). For the identified OCs in RAVE we derived RV and $[M/H]$ from a cleaned working sample and compared the results with previous findings. Results. Although our RAVE sample does not show the same accuracy as the entire survey, we were able to derive reliable RV for 110 Galactic open clusters. For 37 OCs we publish RV for the first time. Moreover, we determined $[M/H]$ for 81 open clusters, extending the number of OCs with $[M/H]$ by 69.