Newly detected open clusters in the Galactic disk using Gaia EDR3

TL;DR

This paper uses Gaia EDR3 data and a clustering method to discover 704 new open clusters in the Milky Way, significantly expanding the known catalog and highlighting the incompleteness of current surveys.

Contribution

The study introduces a high-resolution clustering search method applied to Gaia EDR3 data, leading to the discovery of 704 new open clusters in the Galactic disk.

Findings

Confirmed 1930 known open clusters and 82 globular clusters.

Proposed 704 new open clusters with detailed parameters.

Highlighted the incompleteness of the current open cluster census.

Abstract

The astrometric satellite Gaia recently released part of its third data set, which provides a good opportunity to hunt for more open clusters in the Milky Way. In this work, we conduct a blind search for open clusters in the Galactic disk using a sample-based clustering search method with high spatial resolution, which is especially suited to finding hidden targets. In addition to confirming 1930 previously known open clusters and 82 known globular clusters, 704 new stellar clusters are proposed as potential open clusters at Galactic latitudes of $|$b$|$ < 20 {deg}. For each of these new open clusters, we present the coordinates, detailed astrometric parameters, and ages, as well as the radial velocity, if available. Our blind search greatly increases the number of Galactic open clusters as objects of study and shows the incompleteness of the open cluster census across our Galaxy