Open star clusters in the spiral arms of our Galaxy

• Published in: Astronomy letters 2008-08, Vol.34 (8), p.551-557
• Main Authors: Popova, M. E., Loktin, A. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Observations and Techniques; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Stars; Stars & galaxies; Studies
• ISSN: 1063-7737; 1562-6873
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063773708080069

We consider the age distributions of open star clusters attributed to three segments of Galactic spiral arms. The smoothed distributions of clusters on the age-Galactocentric angle plane show a great nonuniformity. The time dependence of the formation rate of Galactic disk clusters recovered by taking into account selection effects and dynamical evolution of clusters shows that, on average, the formation rate of open star clusters decreases with time. This is in agreement with the increase in star formation rate into the past, as follows from the study of this process by the method of stellar population synthesis. The present time is the epoch of a current maximum of the cluster formation rate. In addition to the current maximum, there have been at least three more maxima with a period of 300–400 Myr and a duration of no more than 300 Myr. The age distributions are consistent with the pattern of star formation governed by the successive passages of density waves through each examined volume of the Galactic disk. The spiral structure becomes more complex when passing from the inner regions of the Galaxy to its outer regions.