Mining the VVV: star formation and embedded clusters

¹ University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science, PO Box 68, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: otto.solin@helsinki.fi
² Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, 21500 Piikkiö, Finland
³ University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Geophysics and Astronomy, PO Box 64, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Received: 22 October 2013
Accepted: 20 December 2013

Abstract

Aims. We aim to locate previously unknown stellar clusters using the VISTA variables in the Vía Láctea Survey (VVV) catalogue data.

Methods. The method fits a mixture model of Gaussian densities and background noise and uses the expectation maximization algorithm to pre-filtered near-infrared survey stellar catalogue data; it was developed by the authors for the UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey (GPS).

Results. The search located 88 previously unknown candidates, most of which are embedded stellar cluster candidates, and 39 previously unknown sites of star formation in the 562 deg² covered by VVV in the Galactic bulge and the southern disk.