Determining the distance

of open clusters using the

distance modulus relation
27.06.2022
─

Team Quastars
Society for Space Education Research and Development (SSERD)
Team Members
Team Leader:-
Paveena Vijaykumar
Assistant Team Leader:-
Neev Nahata
Other team members:-
Aditya Mekin
Akshara Rampalli
Azraa Riyas
Dron Paul Choudhury
Eunice Gloria Chinega
Medhansh Garg
Meenashisunthar Subby
Shibam Sundar Mahakud

Mentors
Mr. Anirudh Salgundi
Mr. Prateek Boga

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Abstract
We have analyzed 10 open clusters namely, NGC 2509, NGC 6031, NGC 6281, NGC 6633, NGC 6791,
NGC 2355, NGC 3293, NGC 6603, NGC 5662, NGC 5460. We got the UBV photometric data of these
clusters from the WEBDA database. The Color Magnitude Diagram of each of the open clusters were
plotted and the color and magnitude was analyzed for each of the clusters. A python code was written to
calculate the distance of all the open clusters using the distance modulus relationship.

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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our utmost gratitude to the Society for Space Education, Research and
Development (SSERD) for providing us with the research internship opportunity to come together and
work under the guidance of researchers and experts in their fields, and for providing us with ample
training through the training sessions. With the provided assistance and resources we could approach our
work with the formal scientific research method in mind. We would also like to thank the expert trainers
who have conducted many training sessions throughout our internship.
We are extremely grateful to Mr. Anirudh Salgundi and Mr. Prateek Boga for being our supervisors and
guiding us throughout this journey.
We are grateful for each and every person that has made this possible. We would also like to thank our
team members, for being patient and understanding while collaborating with each other virtually, and
delivering the best of the ideas.

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Table of Contents
Team Members 1

Mentors 1

Abstract 2

Acknowledgements 3

Introduction 5

Literature 5
Stellar Evolution 5
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 10
Color-magnitude diagram 11
Star Clusters 12
Photometric bands 14
Extinction 15
Isochrones 16
Distance Modulus 17

Methodology 18

Results and discussion 20

Bibliography 21

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List of Figures

1. Stellar evolution 7

2. Stellar Evolution - Main Sequence 10

3. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 1 12

4. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 2

13

5. Open Cluster NGC 330 15

6. Distance Modulus Diagram 19

7. Python Code 22

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1. Introduction
Our team Quastars indulged in the study of stellar bodies, where we aimed to learn more about
their properties, composition and learn about concepts like HR and CM diagrams to tackle our
problem statement, which is “Determining the distance of open clusters using distance modulus”.
This report here contains the research work and the methodology used to understand distance
modulus during the during of our project.

2. Literature
2.1. Stellar Evolution
Molecular Clouds:-
These clouds have cold interiors with characteristic temperatures of only 10–20 K; most
of their gas atoms are bound into molecules. These clouds turn out to be the birthplaces of
most stars in our Galaxy.

The masses of molecular clouds range from a thousand times the mass of the Sun to
about 3 million solar masses. Molecular clouds have a complex filamentary structure,
similar to cirrus clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, but much less dense. The molecular cloud
filaments can be up to 1000 light-years long. Within the clouds are cold, dense regions
with typical masses of 50 to 500 times the mass of the Sun; we give these regions the
highly technical name clumps. Within these clumps, there are even denser, smaller
regions called cores. The cores are the embryos of stars. The conditions in these
cores—low temperature and high density—are just what is required to make stars.
Remember that the essence of the life story of any star is the ongoing competition
between two forces: gravity and pressure. The force of gravity, pulling inward, tries to
make a star collapse. Internal pressure produced by the motions of the gas atoms, pushing
outward, tries to force the star to expand. When a star is first forming, low temperature
(and hence, low pressure) and high density (hence, greater gravitational attraction) both
work to give gravity the advantage. In order to form a star—that is, a dense, hot ball of
matter capable of starting nuclear reactions deep within—we need a typical core of
interstellar atoms and molecules to shrink in radius and increase in density by a factor of
nearly 1020. It is the force of gravity that produces this drastic collapse.

Birth of a star:-
The first step in the process of creating stars is the formation of dense cores within a
clump of gas and dust. It is generally thought that all the material for the star comes from
the core, the larger structure surrounding the forming star. Eventually, the gravitational
force of the infalling gas becomes strong enough to overwhelm the pressure exerted by
the cold material that forms the dense cores. The material then undergoes a rapid

6
collapse, and the density of the core increases greatly as a result. During the time a dense
core is contracting to become a true star, but before the fusion of protons to produce
helium begins, we call the object a protostar.

The natural turbulence inside a clump tends to give any portion of it some initial spinning
motion (even if it is very slow). As a result, each collapsing core is expected to spin.
According to the law of conservation of angular momentum, a rotating body spins more
rapidly as it decreases in size. In other words, if the object can turn its material around a
smaller circle, it can move that material more quickly. This is exactly what happens when
a core contracts to form a protostar: as it shrinks, its rate of spin increases.

But all directions on a spinning sphere are not created equal. As the protostar rotates, it is
much easier for material to fall right onto the poles (which spin most slowly) than onto
the equator (where material moves around most rapidly). Therefore, gas and dust falling
in toward the protostar’s equator are “held back” by the rotation and form a whirling
extended disk around the equator. Gas can, however, fall onto the protostar easily from
directions away from the star’s equator.

The protostar and disk at this stage are embedded in an envelope of dust and gas from
which material is still falling onto the protostar. This dusty envelope blocks visible light,
but infrared radiation can get through. As a result, in this phase of its evolution, the
protostar itself is emitting infrared radiation and so is observable only in the infrared
region of the spectrum. Once almost all of the available material has been accreted and
the central protostar has reached nearly its final mass, it is given a special name: it is
called a T Tauri star, named after one of the best studied and brightest members of this
class of stars, which was discovered in the constellation of Taurus. Only stars with
masses less than or similar to the mass of the Sun become T Tauri stars.

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 Figure 1 - Stellar Evolution
Source:- Stellar_evolution_pillars.jpg (1920×1115) (esa.int)

Evolutionary Tracks:-
The evolutionary tracks of newly forming stars with a range of stellar masses are shown
in. These young stellar objects are not yet producing energy by nuclear reactions, but they
derive energy from gravitational contraction—through the sort of process proposed for
the Sun by Helmhotz and Kelvin in this last century.

Initially, a protostar remains fairly cool with a very large radius and a very low density. It
is transparent to infrared radiation, and the heat generated by gravitational contraction can
be radiated away freely into space. Because heat builds up slowly inside the protostar, the
gas pressure remains low, and the outer layers fall almost unhindered toward the centre.
Thus, the protostar undergoes very rapid collapse, a stage that corresponds to the roughly
vertical lines at the right of. As the star shrinks, its surface area gets smaller, and so its
total luminosity decreases. The rapid contraction stops only when the protostar becomes
dense and opaque enough to trap the heat released by gravitational contraction.

When the star begins to retain its heat, the contraction becomes much slower, and
changes inside the contracting star keep the luminosity of stars like our Sun roughly
constant. The surface temperatures start to build up, and the star “moves” to the left in the
H–R diagram. Stars first become visible only after the stellar wind described earlier
clears away the surrounding dust and gas. This can happen during the rapid-contraction
phase for low-mass stars, but high-mass stars remain shrouded in dust until they end their
early phase of gravitational contraction.

When the star’s central temperature becomes high enough (about 12 million K) to fuse
hydrogen into helium, we say that the star has reached the main sequence. It is now a
full-fledged star, more or less in equilibrium, and its rate of change slows dramatically.
Only the gradual depletion of hydrogen as it is transformed into helium in the core slowly
changes the star’s properties.

The mass of a star determines exactly where it falls on the main sequence. As massive
stars on the main sequence have high temperatures and high luminosities. Low-mass stars
have low temperatures and low luminosities.

Objects of extremely low mass never achieve high-enough central temperatures to ignite
nuclear reactions. The lower end of the main sequence stops where stars have a mass just
barely great enough to sustain nuclear reactions at a sufficient rate to stop gravitational
contraction. This critical mass is calculated to be about 0.075 times the mass of the Sun.

Main-Sequence to Old age:-

Once a star has reached the main-sequence stage of its life, it derives its energy almost
entirely from the conversion of hydrogen to helium via the process of nuclear fusion in its

8
core. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in stars, this process can maintain the
star’s equilibrium for a long time. Thus, all stars remain on the main sequence for most of
their lives. Some astronomers like to call the main-sequence phase the star’s “prolonged
adolescence” or “adulthood” (continuing our analogy to the stages in a human life).

The left-hand edge of the main-sequence band in the H–R diagram is called the zero-age
main sequence. We use the term zero-age to mark the time when a star stops contracting,
settles onto the main sequence, and begins to fuse hydrogen in its core. The zero-age
main sequence is a continuous line in the H–R diagram that shows where stars of
different masses but similar chemical composition can be found when they begin to fuse
hydrogen.

Since only 0.7% of the hydrogen used in fusion reactions is converted into energy, fusion
does not change the total mass of the star appreciably during this long period. It does,
however, change the chemical composition in its central regions where nuclear reactions
occur: hydrogen is gradually depleted, and helium accumulates. This change of
composition changes the luminosity, temperature, size, and interior structure of the star.
When a star’s luminosity and temperature begin to change, the point that represents the
star on the H–R diagram moves away from the zero-age main sequence.

Life times on the main sequence:-

How many years a star remains in the main-sequence band depends on its mass. You
might think that a more massive star, having more fuel, would last longer, but it’s not that
simple. The lifetime of a star in a particular stage of evolution depends on how much
nuclear fuel it has and on how quickly it uses up that fuel.

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 Figure 2 - Stellar Evolution - Main sequence
Source:- Stellar Evolution Booklet (esa.int)

The reason massive stars are such spendthrifts is that, as we saw above, the rate of fusion
depends very strongly on the star’s core temperature. And what determines how hot a
star’s central regions get? It is the mass of the star—the weight of the overlying layers
determines how high the pressure in the core must be: higher mass requires higher
pressure to balance it. Higher pressure, in turn, is produced by higher temperature. The
higher the temperature in the central regions, the faster the star races through its
storehouse of central hydrogen. Although massive stars have more fuel, they burn it so
prodigiously that their lifetimes are much shorter than those of their low-mass
counterparts.

From Main-Sequence to Red Giants:-

Eventually, all the hydrogen in a star’s core, where it is hot enough for fusion reactions, is
used up. The core then contains only helium, “contaminated” by whatever small
percentage of heavier elements the star had to begin with. The helium in the core can be
thought of as the accumulated “ash” from the nuclear “burning” of hydrogen during the
main-sequence stage.

Energy can no longer be generated by hydrogen fusion in the stellar core because the
hydrogen is all gone and, as we will see, the fusion of helium requires much higher
temperatures. Since the central temperature is not yet high enough to fuse helium, there is
no nuclear energy source to supply heat to the central region of the star. The long period
of stability now ends, gravity again takes over, and the core begins to contract. Once
more, the star’s energy is partially supplied by gravitational energy, in the way described
by Kelvin and Helmholtz. As the star’s core shrinks, the energy of the inward-falling
material is converted to heat.

New energy produced by fusion of this hydrogen now pours outward from this shell and
begins to heat up layers of the star farther out, causing them to expand. Meanwhile, the
helium core continues to contract, producing more heat right around it. This leads to more
fusion in the shell of fresh hydrogen outside the core. The additional fusion produces still
more energy, which also flows out into the upper layer of the star.

So the star becomes simultaneously more luminous and cooler. On the H–R diagram, the
star therefore leaves the main-sequence band and moves upward (brighter) and to the
right (cooler surface temperature). Over time, massive stars become red supergiants, and
lower-mass stars like the Sun become red giants.

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2.2. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, also called H-R diagram, in astronomy, the graph in which
the absolute magnitudes (intrinsic brightness) of stars are plotted against their spectral
types (temperatures). Of great importance to theories of stellar evolution, it evolved from
charts begun in 1911 by the Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung and independently by
the U.S. astronomer Henry Norris Russell.

Figure 3 - HR Diagram
Source:- Hertzsprung-Russell-diagram.png (universetoday.com)

On the diagram, stars are ranked from bottom to top in order of decreasing magnitude
(increasing brightness) and from right to left by increasing temperature (spectral class).
Stars of the galactic arm in which the Sun is located tend to fall into distinct regions on
the diagram. The group called the main sequence extends in a rough diagonal from the
upper left of the diagram (hot, bright stars) to the lower right (dim and cool). Large,
bright, though cool, stars called giants and supergiants appear in the upper right, and the
white dwarfs, dim, small, and hot, lie in the lower left. The Sun lies near the middle of the
main sequence, and stars spend most of their lives on the main sequence. As stars burn up
the hydrogen in their cores into helium, they become more luminous and cooler (because
they have expanded) and therefore move off the main sequence into the upper right
region of the giants and supergiants. The point at which stars move off the main sequence
can be used to give the age of star clusters, because stars at the lower end of the main

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 sequence take longer to burn their hydrogen into helium than stars at the upper end. The
most massive stars explode in supernovas. Stars of a few solar masses eject their outer
layers as planetary nebulae, which have a hot, luminous central star found in the upper
left of the diagram. Stars like the Sun burn down to cool white dwarfs, which are found in
the bottom left of the diagram.

2.3. Color-magnitude diagram

The color-magnitude diagram is a graph of data collected from stars of various types,
plotted in terms of brightness(luminosity) and color (surface temperature). Using Wien’s
Law we can use the temperature of a star to calculate its color and spectral type.
Danish astronomer, Ejnar - Hertzprung did the first work in this area, by graphing the
magnitudes of stars against their colors. Later, American astronomer Henry Russel found
a relation between the star's luminosity and temperature. Hence, the work of the two
allowed for the stars to be grouped into several distinct groups called spectral types.
This diagram now allows for a plethora of observations to be made. Through it, the star's
age can be estimated along with its properties, size and color.

Figure 4 - HR Diagram 2
Source:- Hipall.gif (336×376) (caltech.edu)
There are 4 distinct areas in the CMD:
1. A diagonal band which runs from the top left to the bottom right consists of
bright blue stars on the left to faint, red stars on the right. This is called the main

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 sequence. The main sequence is the place where a star is in hydrostatic
equilibrium and spends most of its life in. It burns hydrogen into helium in this
stage.
2. A horizontal stripe on the top of the diagram, ranging from blue to red, is called
supergiants. These are old stars, nearing the end of their life. They are very
massive stars and are extremely bright.
3. A small group of red stars, lying to the right of the main sequence are called Red
Giants. These are also old stars and are formed from stars like the sun when they
near the end of their lives.
4. On the bottom left, lie a group of extremely small, and dim stars(or remnants of)
called white dwarfs. These are extremely hot, but dim corpses of stars like our
sun when they shed their outer layers into a planetary nebula.
Wien’s Law:- The brightness of a star depends upon its temperature, which in turn
determines its color. This law is based upon the fact that stars produce the majority of
their light as perfect radiators(or black bodies).
Luminosity:- Luminosity, in astronomy, is the amount of light emitted by an object in a
unit of time

2.4. Star Clusters

Open clusters:

Open clusters are physically related groups of stars held together by mutual gravitational
attraction. Therefore, they populate a limited region of space, typically much smaller than
their distance from us, so that they are all roughly at the same distance. They are believed
to originate from large cosmic gas and dust clouds (star-forming diffuse nebulae, or
star-forming regions) in the Milky Way (or other parent galaxy), and to continue to orbit
the galaxy within or near their parent galaxy's disk. In many clouds visible as bright
diffuse nebulae, star formation still takes place at this moment, so that we can observe the
formation of new young star clusters. The process of formation takes only a considerably
short time compared to the lifetime of the cluster, so that all member stars are of similar
age. Also, as all the stars in a cluster formed from the same diffuse nebula, they are all of
similar initial chemical composition.

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 Figure 5 - Open Cluster NGC 330
Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Kalirai / A. Milone.

This Hubble image shows the open star cluster NGC 330. The color image was made
from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the
spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Four filters were used to sample
various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each
monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.Open clusters are of great
interest for astrophysicists because of these properties:

1. The stars in a cluster are all at about the same distance

2. The stars have approximately the same age
3. The stars have about the same chemical composition
4. The stars have different masses, ranging from about 80-100 solar masses for the most
massive stars in very young clusters to less than about 0.08 solar masses.

Therefore, they represent samples of stars of constant age and/or constant chemical
composition, suited for study with respect to stellar structure and evolution, and to fix
lines or loci in many state diagrams such as the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), or
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). Comparing the "standard" HRD, derived from

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 nearby stars with sufficiently well known distances, or the theory of stellar evolution,
with the measured CMD of star clusters, provides a considerably good method to
determine the distance of star clusters. Comparing their HRD with stellar theory provides
a reasonable way to estimate the age of star clusters.

Globular Clusters:

Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound clusters of tens of thousands to millions of
stars. They are associated with all types of galaxies. Globular clusters are typically much
larger than open clusters and are tightly gravitationally bound. They are far more densely
populated, with populations ranging from tens of thousands to millions of stars. The
intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars gives globular clusters
their regular, spherical shape. They are populated by older, redder stars than open clusters
(which might disperse before their stars can become really old). Their considerable
gravitational attraction makes them very stable, and therefore they can be extremely
long-lived, surviving to be billions of years old. They are associated with all types of
galaxies, and within the Milky Way they are found in the halo and the bulge. All star
clusters are of great interest to astronomers, because their constituent stars all formed at
approximately the same time and location, and had similar initial composition.

Comparison of the measured HRD of each globular cluster with theoretical model HRDs
derived from the theory of stellar evolution provides the possibility to derive, or estimate,
the age of that particular cluster. It is perhaps a bit surprising that almost all globular
clusters seem to be of about the same age; there seems to be a physical reason that they
all formed in a short period of time in the history of the universe, and this period was
apparently long ago when the galaxies were young. Semi-recent estimates yield an age of
12 to 20 billion years; the best value for observation is perhaps 12 to 16 billion (see e.g.
the discussion at M92).

2.5. Photometric bands

Astronomers use filters to isolate parts of the spectrum, and so measure monochromatic
flux. The amount of the spectrum that a filter allows through is known as the bandpass.
Filters are usually categorized into narrow-band filters, which have a bandpass of order
10 nm and typically isolate a spectral line, and broad-band filters, which have a bandpass
of order 100 nm. The central wavelength of the filter bandpass is known as the effective
wavelength. Most modern filters are constructed of different coloured glasses, often in
conjunction with thin-film coatings to help define the bandpasses and minimize reflection
at the surfaces.
Photometry of a source in a set of filters provides crude spectral information about the
source. Well-defined sets of filters are known as photometric systems. A photometric
system with too many filters, each with a very narrow bandpass, would make it difficult

15
 to detect sufficient photons from a source, and strong absorption/emission features in the
spectrum might adversely affect some of the bandpasses. Conversely, a photometric
system with too few filters, each with a very wide bandpass, would provide insufficient
spectral information.
The most widely used photometric system today is the UBVRI system, also known as the
Johnson-Morgan-Cousins system. The filters cover the whole range of optical
wavelengths - UBV covers the "Ultraviolet", "Blue" and "Visual" ranges, whilst RI
covers the "Red" and "Infrared" range.
In order to make a crude determination of the color of a star, it is possible to make
photometric measurements of its apparent magnitude by passing the star's light through
various colored filters, each one designed to transmit light over a limited range of
wavelengths. The standard set of filters are labeled U,B,V, R and I. The initials stand for
ultraviolet, blue, visible, infrared and far-infrared respectively.
Figure shows the wavelength ranges for transmission by U, B and V filters. As can be
seen by comparison with Figure 13.14, the U filter passes ultraviolet light, the B filter
passes primarily blue light, and the V filter passes most visible wavelengths. Often, the
apparent magnitude of an astronomical object measured using one of these filters is
referred to by the filter letter, e.g. a "B magnitude".
Suppose that we make two measurements of the same star, one through a V filter, and the
other through a B filter. If we call the two measured magnitudes V and B respectively,
then let's consider the significance of the quantity
Recalling that apparent magnitudes are a "backwards quantity", i.e. the smaller the
number the brighter the star, we see that B-V is a measure of the "redness" of a star.
Why? Suppose that we have two stars with equal visible brightness. Then, their V
magnitudes will be the same. But, if one is a very blue star, and the other a very red star,
the blue star will have a smaller B magnitude, and therefore a smaller value of B-V. The
red star will have a larger B magnitude, and therefore a larger value of B-V. For this
reason, the quantity B-Vis called a color index.

2.6. Extinction
Although we think of interstellar space as a vacuum, it is in fact filled with tenuous gas
and dust. Like a smoke-filled room, the gas and dust along the line of sight to a star dim
the starlight by absorbing and scattering the light. We call this effect interstellar
extinction. If we do not account for this extinction, we will overestimate the distance to
the star.
Extinction is stronger at shorter wavelengths, as shorter wavelengths interact more
strongly with dust particles. Red light passes through gas and dust more easily than blue
light. The more gas and dust between you and the source, the stronger the reddening. You
observe this effect daily! When the sun and moon are near the horizon, you are viewing
them through more atmosphere than when they are overhead. That is why the sun and
moon look reddish when they rise and set. The reddening of starlight due to the

16
 interstellar extinction is known as interstellar reddening. Astronomers often used the
terms extinction and reddening interchangeably.
The extinction or reddening to an object is usually given in magnitudes, and denoted by
an uppercase A. Since extinction is a function of wavelength, a subscript specifies the
wavelength for the stated value. A star whose light is dimmed by 1.2 magnitudes when
viewed through a V filter would have an extinction of A V = 1.2.

2.7. Isochrones
Isochrones are the theoretical evolutionary tracks of stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell
diagram or a color-magnitude diagram that have mainly the same age but different
masses. These theoretical calculations of aging stellar populations, called stellar
isochrones, are used to fit cluster Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams and derive distance,
ages, and metallicities of star clusters.

Each curve/isochrone shows the properties of stars as a function of mass for the given
age. Not to be confused with an evolutionary track, which shows the properties of a star
as a function of age for a fixed mass. It is, of course, an advantage to be able to evolve
several stars of different masses, rather than having to rely on a single evolutionary track
and appropriate scaling.

Isochrones are based on detailed computations of stellar evolution, that is, they track the
temporal evolution of stars and how their observed properties such as luminosity and
surface temperature change with time.

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 Figure 6 - Distance Modulus Diagram
Source:- http://voyages.sdss.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/figure_11.png

A star cluster is thus nothing else but an “observed” isochrone, as all its stars share the
same age but do not all have the same mass. However, the position and shape of the
cluster stars in the color-magnitude diagram also depend on the chemical composition of
the stars. A comparison of the positions of the cluster stars with isochrones of different
ages, particularly in the turn-off point region, can lead to an accurate age determination, if
the metallicity of the isochrones matches that of the cluster.

To determine the age of globular clusters, various sets of isochrones are needed with
different metallicities and age levels. Globular clusters exhibit diverse metallicities and
the right one has to be selected. Again, the relevant position of the main sequence turn-off
in the color-magnitude diagram depends both on age and on the star cluster’s metallicity.
The positions of main sequence, red giant branch, and horizontal branch in the
color-magnitude diagram of a globular cluster have to be shifted against those of the
isochrones of relevant metallicity until one isochrone matches. This “correct” isochrone
then immediately yields the age of the globular cluster.

2.8. Distance Modulus

The distance modulus equation relates the apparent magnitude denoted by m, the absolute
magnitude denoted by M and the distance of the cluster, denoted by D.

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We have modified the equation a bit and the m - M is replaced by Vc, which is the value
of V correction that we get by plotting the Color Magnitude Diagrams for each of the
open clusters and then comparing it with the color magnitude diagram of the Zero Age
Main Sequence stars.

Although we think of interstellar space as a vacuum, it is in fact filled with a lot of gas
and dust. Just like a smoke-filled room, the gas and dust along the line of sight to a star
dim the starlight by absorbing and scattering the light. We call this effect interstellar
extinction. If we do not account for this extinction, we will overestimate the distance to
the stellar cluster. So to account for this we have added the reddening factor that is A v.

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3. Methodology
For our data on the open star clusters, we used a website called: Webda. We used the
tabular data on this website, converted it into a CSV file and stored it on our computers.
The clusters we collected data on were:

Cluster Name Webda Link

NGC 2509 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 6031 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 6281 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 6633 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 6791 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 2355 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 3293 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 6603 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 5662 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

NGC 5460 WEBDA: Open cluster page (muni.cz)

Tabular form of the open clusters analyzed

Upon collecting data on various parameters, such as Magnitude, Color and others, we
used an application called TopCat which allows for data plotting. We plotted data on
Magnitude (V) on the Y-axis and on the X-Axis we plotted the Color (B-V). This was
done to achieve a CMD for the data. Furthermore, this data was plotted upon a ZAMS
data file.

After the color-magnitude diagram was plotted using Topcat, we aligned the data with the
ZAMS by subtracting certain values in the Y-Axis(V-x). This was called the V-correction
value. The V-correction value and the reddening factor (taken from Webda) were
tabulated in an excel sheet.

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Cluster Name V-correction Reddening
NGC 2509 9.7 0.150
NGC 6031 9.6 0.371
NGC 6281 8.3 0.148
NGC 6633 8.0 0.182
NGC 6791 12.5 0.117
NGC 2355 11.0 0.120
NGC 3293 10.6 0.263
NGC 6603 10.3 0.790
NGC 5662 8.9 0.311
NGC 5460 10.8 0.092
Table: Tabulated data

Using our calculated data, we made a python code, to use the modified distance modulus
function, in order to find the distance from earth in Kpc. The python code is as follows:-

Figure 7
Python Code

ZAMS: ZAMS stands for zero-age main sequence, and it is the place where a protostar
enters the main-sequence, i.e starts fusing Hydrogen into Helium.

Distance Modulus Function (Modified):-

(𝑉 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 − 𝐴𝑣 + 5)
5
𝑑 = 10

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4. Results and discussion
Using TOPCAT and UBV photometric data from WEBDA , distances of 10 open clusters were
found. Our analysis yielded an average error of 32% from the literature value excluding three
clusters (NGC 6791, NGC 6603 and NGC 6031) which increased the error significantly (more
than 100%). This might be due to the data quality and few computational errors associated with it.

The distances which give comparable values can be used to check if the source of choice is a
galactic or an extragalactic candidate based on their galactic coordinates. This is considering that
open clusters lie on the disk of the galaxy.

Cluster Name V-correction Reddening Distance (pc)

NGC 2509 9.7 0.150 703.072
NGC 6031 9.6 0.371 489.756
NGC 6281 8.3 0.148 370.032
NGC 6633 8.0 0.182 307.015
NGC 6791 12.5 0.117 2675.839
NGC 2355 11.0 0.120 1335.365
NGC 3293 10.6 0.263 905.607
NGC 6603 10.3 0.790 371.706
NGC 5662 8.9 0.311 386.527
NGC 5460 10.8 0.092 1267.535

Table: Results

Another interesting observation was that for 9 out of the 10 clusters we derived distance for, our
estimate for the distance was lower than other estimates. This suggests that the error could have
been drastically reduced by conventionally aligning the bottom of the color magnitude diagram of
the open cluster with the zero age main sequence color magnitude diagram as this would give a
higher V-correction which would mean a higher value for distance.

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