Two young open clusters in Cygnus and their vicinity: combining multicolor photometry with Gaia DR3 astrometry

TL;DR

This study combines multicolor photometry and Gaia DR3 astrometry to analyze two young, nearly coeval open clusters in Cygnus, revealing their properties, extinction patterns, and orbital histories.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of Berkeley 86 and 87, including their ages, masses, extinction, and kinematic histories, highlighting their likely independent origins despite similar properties.

Findings

Both clusters are approximately 1.7 kpc away and nearly coeval (~6.1-6.5 Myr).

Extinction varies within each cluster, especially in Berkeley 86.

Berkeley 87 and NGC 6913 likely formed as a pair, but the two clusters did not share a common birthplace.

Abstract

We investigate two neighboring clusters in the Cygnus complex, Berkeley 86 and Berkeley 87, with a primary emphasis on the evaluation of extinction in the field of view towards and across the clusters. We also analyze their kinematic behavior in space and time to discern their possible common origin and relation to the Cyg~OB1 association. New CCD photometry in the Vilnius seven-color system, obtained down to V=19.0 mag in the fields of these two clusters, is used to classify stars in terms of spectral and luminosity classes and to determine the individual values of interstellar extinction. The probable cluster members are identified in a 5-parameter space based on Gaia DR3. The cluster ages and stellar masses are derived through the use of the HR diagrams. To obtain the 3D kinematics of the clusters and trace their orbits back in time, we combine the Gaia-based proper-motions and distances with radial velocities from the literature. The estimated cluster properties show that both clusters are almost equidistant (1.7 kpc) and nearly coeval, with average ages of 6.1$\pm$0.5 and 6.5$\pm$0.4 Myr, respectively, and age dispersion of 3 Myr. The nonuniformity of extinction is evident within each cluster, especially pronounced across the face of Berkeley 86 where the most-massive stars show substantial substructure. By extrapolating the observed mass function to a minimum stellar mass, we obtain cluster masses of 519 M(Sun) and 1551 M(Sun) for Berkeley 86 and 87, respectively. Although both clusters share very similar properties, their orbital paths show no indication that they had a common birthplace, however Berkeley 87 and its neighbor NGC 6913 are very likely to have been born in pair.