New detections of embedded clusters in the Galactic halo

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of young embedded star clusters at high galactic latitudes, indicating ongoing star formation in the Galactic halo, which challenges previous beliefs about the halo's star-forming activity.

Contribution

It presents new detections of high-latitude embedded clusters, demonstrating that star formation occurs systematically in the Galactic halo, not just episodically.

Findings

Discovery of three new high-latitude embedded clusters.

Evidence of widespread star formation throughout the Galactic halo.

Clusters are younger than 5 million years.

Abstract

Until recently it was thought that high Galactic latitude clouds were a non-star-forming ensemble. However, in a previous study we reported the discovery of two embedded clusters (ECs) far away from the Galactic plane ($\sim5$ kpc). In our recent star cluster catalogue we provided additional high and intermediate latitude cluster candidates. This work aims to clarify if our previous detection of star clusters far away from the disc represents just an episodic event or if the star cluster formation is currently a systematic phenomenon in the Galactic halo. We analyse the nature of four clusters found in our recent catalogue and report the discovery of three new ECs with unusually high latitude and distance from the Galactic disc midplane. All of these clusters are younger than 5 Myr. The high-latitude ECs C 932, C 934, and C 939 appear to be related to a cloud complex about 5 kpc below the Galactic disc, under the Local arm. The other clusters are above the disc, C 1074 and C 1100 with a vertical distance of $\sim3$ kpc, C 1099 with $\sim2$ kpc, and C 1101 with $\sim1.8$ kpc. According to the derived parameters there occur ECs located below and above the disc, which is an evidence of widespread star cluster formation throughout the Galactic halo. Thus, this study represents a paradigm shift, in the sense that a sterile halo becomes now a host of ongoing star formation. The origin and fate of these ECs remain open. There are two possibilities for their origin, Galactic fountain or infall. The discovery of ECs far from the disc suggests that the Galactic halo is more actively forming stars than previously thought and since most ECs do not survive the \textit{infant mortality} it may be raining stars from the halo into the disc, and/or the halo harbours generations of stars formed in clusters like those hereby detected.