Related papers: The distance and neutral environment of the massiv…
Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) is one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way. Although relevant for star formation and evolution, its fundamental parameters are not yet very well constrained. We aim to derive an accurate distance and…
We present a structural analysis of the young massive star cluster Westerlund 1 (Wd 1). With multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations, we measure the proper motions of $10346$ stars and determine their kinematic memberships by…
Massive stellar clusters are the best available laboratories to study the mass function of stars. Based on NTT/SofI near-infrared photometry, we have investigated the properties of the massive young cluster Westerlund 1. From comparison…
Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) is one of the most relevant star clusters in the Milky Way to study massive star formation, although it is still poorly known. Here, we used photometric and spectroscopic data to model the eclipsing binary W36, showing…
The Galactic open cluster Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) represents the ideal local template for extragalactic young massive star clusters, because it is currently the only nearby young cluster which reaches a mass of around 10^5 Msun. The proximity…
(Abridged) We have used Gaia EDR3 data, together with spectra of a large sample of luminous stars in the field surrounding Westerlund 1, to explore the extent of the cluster. We carry out a non-parametric analysis of proper motions and…
The Galactic open cluster Westerlund 1 was found only a few years ago to be much more massive than previously thought, with evidence suggesting its mass to be in excess of ~10^5 Msun, in the range spanned by young extragalactic star…
We present deep near-infrared HST/WFC3 observations of the young supermassive Galactic star cluster Westerlund 1 and an adjacent control field. The depth of the data is sufficient to derive the mass function for the cluster as a function of…
Being the most massive known young stellar cluster in the Milky Way, Westerlund 1 (Wd1) constitutes an ideal benchmark for understanding the evolution of massive stars. However, the cluster age remains highly controversial (~4-10 Myr),…
We have analysed near-infrared NTT/SofI observations of the starburst cluster Westerlund 1, which is among the most massive young clusters in the Milky Way. A comparison of colour-magnitude diagrams with theoretical main-sequence and…
Young massive stellar clusters are extreme environments and potentially provide the means for efficient particle acceleration. Indeed, they are increasingly considered as being responsible for a significant fraction of cosmic rays (CRs)…
Analyzing the dynamical state of nearby young massive star clusters is essential understanding star cluster formation and evolution during their earliest stages. In this work we analyze the stellar and gas kinematics of the young massive…
Westerlund 1 (Wd1) is potentially the largest star cluster in the Galaxy. That designation critically depends upon the distance to the cluster, yet the cluster is highly obscured, making luminosity-based distance estimates difficult. Using…
Open star clusters from the MWSC (Milky Way Star Clusters) catalogue have been used to determine the Galactic rotation parameters. The circular rotation velocity of the solar neighborhood around the Galactic center has been found from data…
Context. Westerlund I is the richest young cluster currently known in our Galaxy, making it one of the most massive clusters for which we can resolve the individual stars even in the crowded centre. This makes it an ideal target to assess…
We present a spectroscopic and photometric determination of the distance to the young Galactic open cluster Westerlund 2 using WFPC2 imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based optical spectroscopy. HST imaging in the F336W,…
Because of their large number of stars spread over the entire stellar mass spectrum, starburst clusters are highly suitable to benchmark and calibrate star formation models and theories. Among the handful of Galactic starburst clusters,…
Currently available data on the field of velocities Vr, Vl, Vb for open star clusters are used to perform a kinematic analysis of various samples that differ by heliocentric distance, age, and membership in individual structures (the Orion,…
Westerlund 1 is the most important starburst cluster in the Galaxy due to its massive star content. We have performed BVIc and JKs photometry to investigate the initial mass function (IMF). By comparing the observed color with the spectral…
We report on $BVI$ CCD photometry of a field centered in the region of the Galactic star cluster Whiting~1 down to $V=23.0$. This cluster has never been studied insofar, and we provide for the first time estimates of its fundamental…