Obscured star clusters in the inner Milky Way

How many massive young clusters are still awaiting detection

¹ Universitäts-Sternwarte, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
² European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
³ Instituto de Astrofísica, Depto. de Ciencias Físicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Andrés Bello, Av. Fernandez Concha 700, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
⁴ Vatican Observatory, Vatican City State, V-00120, Italy

^★ Corresponding authors; agupta@ph1.uni-koeln.de, preibisch@usm.uni-muenchen.de, vivanov@eso.org

Received: 12 June 2024
Accepted: 1 November 2024

Abstract

Context. Milky Way star clusters provide important clues about the history of star formation in our Galaxy. However, the dust in the disk and in the innermost regions hides them from the observers.

Aims. Our goal is twofold. First, to detect new clusters – we have applied the newest methods of detecting clusters with the best available wide-field sky surveys in the mid-infrared because they are the least affected by extinction. Second, we address the question of cluster detection’s completeness, for now limiting it to the most massive star clusters.

Methods. This search is based on the mid-infrared Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE), to minimize the effect of dust extinction. The search Ordering Points To Identify the Clustering Structure (OPTICS) clustering algorithm was applied to identify clusters, after excluding the bluest, presumably foreground sources, to improve the cluster-to-field contrast. The success rate for cluster identification was estimated with a semi-empirical simulation that adds clusters, based on the real objects, to the point source catalog, to be recovered later with the same search algorithm that was used in the search for new cluster candidates. As a first step, this was limited to the most massive star clusters with a total mass of ~10⁴ M_⊙.

Results. Our automated search, combined with inspection of the color-magnitude diagrams and images, yielded 659 cluster candidates; 106 of these appear to have been previously identified, suggesting that a large hidden population of star clusters still exists in the inner Milky Way. However, the search for the simulated supermassive clusters achieves a recovery rate of 70–95%, depending on the distance and extinction toward them.

Conclusions. The new candidates – if confirmed – indicate that the Milky Way still harbors a sizeable population of unknown clusters. However, they must be objects of modest richness, because our simulation indicates that there is no substantial hidden population of supermassive clusters in the central region of our Galaxy.