The IC 5146 star forming complex and its surroundings with 2MASS, WISE and Spitzer

TL;DR

This study uses WISE, 2MASS, and Spitzer infrared data to analyze star-forming regions around IC 5146, discovering new embedded clusters and assessing the completeness of YSO populations in these clouds.

Contribution

It extends the classification of YSOs to WISE data, discovers five new embedded clusters, and compares YSO populations across different infrared surveys.

Findings

Identified five new embedded clusters around IC 5146.

Extended YSO classification methods to WISE data.

Compared YSO populations from WISE, Spitzer, and 2MASS surveys.

Abstract

Throughout the last decade sensitive infrared observations obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope significantly increased the known population of YSOs associated with nearby molecular clouds. With such a census recent studies have characterized pre-main sequence stars (PMS) and determined parame- ters from different wavelengths. Given the restricted Spitzer coverage of some of these clouds, relative to their extended regions, these YSO populations may represent a limited view of star formation in these regions. We are taking advantage of mid-infrared observations from the NASA Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which provides an all sky view and therefore full coverage of the nearby clouds, to assess the degree to which their currently known YSO population may be representative of a more complete population. We extend the well established classification method of the Spitzer Legacy teams to archived WISE observations. We have adopted 2MASS photometry as a standard catalogue for comparisons. Besides the massive embedded cluster IC5146 we provide a multiband view of five new embedded clusters in its surroundings that we discovered with WISE. In short, the analysis in- volves the following for the presently studied cluster sample: (1) extraction of 2MASS/WISE/Spitzer photometry in a wide circular region; (2) field-star decontamination to enhance the intrinsic Colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) morphology (essential for a proper derivation of reddening, age, and distance from the Sun); and (3) construction of Colour-magnitude filters, for more contrasted stellar radial density profiles (RDPs).