Detailed analysis of the poorly studied northern open cluster NGC 1348 using multi-color photometry and GAIA EDR3 astrometry

Abstract

Abstract The membership determination for open clusters in noisy environments of the Milky Way is still an open problem. In this paper, our main aim is to provide the membership probability of stars using proper motions and parallax values of stars using Gaia Third Data Release astrometry. Apart from the Gaia astrometry, we have also used other photometric data sets like the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey, WISE, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) Photometric All-Sky Survey, and Pan-STARRS1 in order to understand cluster properties from optical to mid-infrared regions. We selected 438 likely members with membership probabilities higher than $50\%$ and G ≤ 20 mag. We obtained the mean value of proper motion as μx = 1.27 ± 0.001 and μy = −0.73 ± 0.002 mas yr−1. The cluster’s radius is determined as ${7{^{\prime }_{.}}5}$ (5.67 pc) using radial density profile. Our analysis suggests that NGC 1348 is located at a distance of 2.6 ± 0.05 kpc. The mass function slope is found to be 1.30 ± 0.18 in the mass range 1.0–4.1 M⊙, which is in fair agreement with Salpeter’s value within the 1σ uncertainty. The present study validates that NGC 1348 is a dynamically relaxed cluster. We computed the apex coordinates (A, D) for NGC 1348 as (A°, D°) = (−23.°815 ± 0.°135, −22.°228 ± 0.°105). In addition, calculations of the velocity ellipsoid parameters (VEPs), matrix elements μij, direction cosines (lj, mj, nj), and the galactic longitude of the vertex have been conducted in this analysis.