Diagnosing the Stellar Population and Tidal Structure of the Blanco1 Star Cluster

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia DR2 data and machine learning to analyze the stellar population, tidal tails, and dynamical state of the young open cluster Blanco1, revealing stellar streams and signs of early disintegration.

Contribution

It introduces an unsupervised machine learning approach to identify cluster members and detect tidal tails in Blanco1 using Gaia data.

Findings

Identification of 644 cluster candidates with Gaia DR2.

Discovery of leading and trailing tidal tails extending 50-60 pc.

Evidence of mass segregation and early dynamical disintegration.

Abstract

We present the stellar population, using {\it Gaia}\,DR2 parallax, kinematics, and photometry, of the young ($\sim 100$~Myr), nearby ($\sim 230$~pc) open cluster, Blanco1. A total of 644 member candidates are identified via the unsupervised machine learning method \textsc{StarGO} to find the clustering in the 5-dimensional position and proper motion parameter ($X$, $Y$, $Z$, $\mu_\alpha \cos\delta$, $\mu_\delta$) space. Within the tidal radius of $10.0 \pm 0.3$~pc, there are 488 member candidates, 3 times more than those outside. A leading tail and a trailing tail, each of 50--60~pc in the Galactic plane, are found for the first time for this cluster, with stars further from the cluster center streaming away faster, manifest stellar stripping. Blanco1 has a total detected mass of $285\pm32$~M$_\odot $ with a mass function consistent with a slope of $\alpha=1.35\pm0.2$ in the sense of $dN/dm \propto m^{-\alpha}$, in the mass range of 0.25--2.51~M$_\odot $, where $N$ is the number of members and $m$ is stellar mass. A Minimum Spanning Tree ($\Lambda_{\rm MSR}$) analysis shows the cluster to be moderately mass segregated among the most massive members ($\gtrsim 1.4$~M$_\odot$), suggesting an early stage of dynamical disintegration.