Ruprecht 147: A Paradigm of Dissolving Star Cluster

Abstract

We employed recent Gaia/DR2 data to investigate the dynamical status of the nearby (300 pc), old (2.5 Gyr) open cluster Ruprecht 147. We found prominent leading and trailing tails of stars along the cluster orbit, which demonstrates that Ruprecht 147 is losing stars at fast pace. Star counts indicate the cluster has a core radius of 33.3 arcmin and a tidal radius of 137.5 arcmin. The cluster also possesses an extended corona, which cannot be reproduced by a simple King model. We computed the present-day cluster mass using its luminosity and mass function, and derived an estimate of 234 ±52 M . We also estimated the cluster original mass using available recipes extracted from N-body simulations obtaining a mass at birth of 50,000 ±6500 M . Therefore dynamical mass loss, mostly caused by tidal interaction with the Milky Way, reduced the cluster mass by about 99%. We then conclude that Ruprecht 147 is rapidly dissolving into the general Galactic disk. © 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..