Tracing the Galactic spiral structure with embedded clusters

TL;DR

This study uses embedded clusters to map the Milky Way's spiral arms, supporting a four-arm model and providing detailed distances and locations of clusters within these structures.

Contribution

It reports the discovery of 7 new embedded clusters and demonstrates their effectiveness in tracing the Galaxy's spiral arms, refining the understanding of Galactic structure.

Findings

Supports a four-armed spiral pattern in the Milky Way.

Locates clusters predominantly in the Perseus and Outer arms.

Provides distance estimates for key spiral arm segments.

Abstract

In the present work we investigate the properties of 18 embedded clusters (ECs). The sample includes 11 previously known clusters and we report the discovery of 7 ECs on WISE images, thus complementing our recent list of 437 new clusters. The main goal is to use such clusters to shed new light on the Galactic structure by tracing the spiral arms with cluster distances. Our results favour a four-armed spiral pattern tracing three arms, Sagitarius-Carina, Perseus, and the Outer arm. The Sagitarius-Carina spiral arm is probed in the borderline of the third and fourth quadrants at a distance from the Galactic centre of $d_1\sim6.4$ kpc adopting $R_{\odot}=7.2$ kpc, or $d_2\sim7.2$ kpc for $R_{\odot}=8.0$ kpc. Most ECs in our sample are located in the Perseus arm that is traced in the second and third quadrants and appear to be at Galactocentric distances in the range $d_1=9-10.5$ kpc or $d_2=9.8-11.3$ kpc. Dolidze 25, Bochum 2, and Camargo 445 are located in the Outer arm that extends along the second and third Galactic quadrants with a distance from the Galactic centre in the range of $d_1=12.5-14.5$ kpc or $d_2=13.5-15.5$ kpc. We find further evidence that in the Galaxy ECs are predominantly located within the thin disc and along spiral arms. They are excellent tools for tracing these Galactic features and therefore new searches for ECs can contribute to a better understanding of the Galactic structure. We also report an EC aggregate located in the Perseus arm.