Sounding Open Clusters: Asteroseismic Constraints from Kepler on the Properties of NGC 6791 and NGC 6819

Author(s)
Sarbani Basu, Frank Grundahl, Dennis Stello, Thomas Kallinger, Saskia Hekker, Benoit Mosser, Rafael A. García, Savita Mathur, Karsten Brogaard, Hans Bruntt, William J. Chaplin, Ning Gai, Yvonne Elsworth, Lisa Esch, Jerome Ballot, Timothy R. Bedding, Michael Gruberbauer, Daniel Huber, Andrea Miglio, Mutlu Yildiz, Hans Kjeldsen, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Ronald L. Gilliland, Michael M. Fanelli, Khadeejah A. Ibrahim, Jeffrey C. Smith
Abstract

We present initial results on some of the properties of open clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819 derived from asteroseismic data obtained by NASA's Kepler mission. In addition to estimating the mass, radius, and log g of stars on the red giant branch (RGB) of these clusters, we estimate the distance to the clusters and their ages. Our model-independent estimate of the distance modulus of NGC 6791 is (m - M)0 = 13.11± 0.06. We find (m - M)0 = 11.85 ± 0.05 for NGC6819. The average mass of stars on the RGB of NGC 6791 is 1.20 ±0.01 M sun, while that of NGC 6819 is 1.68 ± 0.03 Msun. It should be noted that we do not have data that cover the entire RGB and the actual mass will be somewhat lower. We have determined model-dependent estimates of ages of these clusters. We find ages between 6.8 and 8.6 Gyr for NGC 6791, however, most sets of models give ages around 7 Gyr. We obtain ages between 2 and 2.4 Gyr for NGC6819.

Organisation(s)
Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s)
Yale University, Aarhus University, The University of Sydney, University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Birmingham, Université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Université Paris VII - Paris-Diderot, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Beijing Normal University, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes, Saint Mary's University, Université de Liège, EGE University, Space Telescope Science Institute, National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)
Journal
The Astrophysical journal Letters
Volume
729
ISSN
2041-8205
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/729/1/L10
Publication date
2011
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103004 Astrophysics
Keywords
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/98649a72-e1ee-44b3-b483-0883388b5bae