1998AJ....116..782E -
Astron. J., 116, 782-788 (1998/August-0)
The Sirius supercluster and missing mass near the sun.
EGGEN O.J.
Abstract (from CDS):
The Hipparcos results confirm some 50 members of the Sirius supercluster in the Bright Star Catalogue. The resulting, well-defined color-luminosity array indicates an age of 4x108 yr from conventional (no overshoot) models. A comparison of the luminosity function obtained from members in the Bright Star Catalogue, unbiased as to proper motion, and in the Catalogue of Nearby Stars (∼27 pc), which are strongly biased toward large proper motions, reveals that either most of the small proper-motion stars near the Sun remain to be identified or the luminosity function of the supercluster is drastically different from that of the field stars. A search for low-mass members in a 6°x6° field in the center of the Ursa Major cluster yielded 10 possible members that lie on the white dwarf sequence, 5 mag below the main sequence. Luyten (field LP 131) found 368 stars in this field with proper motion exceeding 0".08, and only 19 of these have a position angle of their proper motion between 0° and 98° (i.e., the quadrant containing UMa cluster members). The assumption of cluster membership yields a parallax very close to that obtained for bright members. Aside from white dwarfs, the possibilities are discussed that these stars are (1) brown dwarfs, (2) members of a cluster in the line of sight to UMa but 100 pc more distant, or (3) reflecting a chain of very unlikely coincidences.
Abstract Copyright:
∼
Journal keyword(s):
Galaxy: Open Clusters and Associations: Individual: Name: Sirius Supercluster
CDS comments:
Tables 3 and 4 : HIP 69327 misprint for 65327. Table 7 : LP 701-39 misprint for 701-29.
Simbad objects:
72
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