An Investigation of Poorly Studied Open Cluster NGC 4337 Using Multicolor Photometric and Gaia DR2 Astrometric Data

Abstract

Abstract We present a comprehensive analysis (photometric and kinematical) of the poorly studied open cluster NGC 4337 using 2MASS, WISE, APASS, and Gaia DR2 databases. By determining the membership probabilities of stars, we identified the 624 most probable members with membership probability higher than 50% by using proper motion and parallax data taken from Gaia DR2. The mean proper motion of the cluster is obtained as and μ y = 1.49 ± 0.006 mas yr−1. We find the normal interstellar extinction toward the cluster region. The radial distribution of members provides a cluster radius of 7.′75 (5.63 pc). The estimated age of 1600 ± 180 Myr indicates that NGC 4337 is an old open cluster with a bunch of red giant stars. The overall mass function slope for main-sequence stars is found as within the mass range 0.75−2.0 , which is in fair agreement with Salpeter’s value (x = 1.35) within uncertainty. The present study demonstrates that NGC 4337 is a dynamically relaxed open cluster. Using the Galactic potential model, Galactic orbits are obtained for NGC 4337. We found that this object follows a circular path around the Galactic center. Under the kinematical analysis, we compute the apex coordinates (A, D) by using two methods: (i) the classical convergent point method and (ii) the AD-diagram method. The obtained coordinates are (A conv, D conv) = (96.°27 ± 0.°10, 13.°14 ± 0.°27) and (A ◦, D ◦) = (100.°282 ± 0.°10, 9.°577 ± 0.°323) respectively. We also computed the Velocity Ellipsoid Parameters, matrix elements (μ ij ), direction cosines (l j , m j , n j ), and the Galactic longitude of the vertex (l 2).