The IC 5146 star forming complex and its surroundings with 2MASS, WISE and Spitzer

Throughout the last decade sensitive infrared observations obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope significantly increased the known population of YSOs associated with nearby molecular clouds. With such a census recent studies have characterized pre-main sequence stars (PMS) and determined parame- ters from different wavelengths. Given the restricted Spitzer coverage of some of these clouds, relative to their extended regions, these YSO populations may represent a limited view of star formation in these regions. We are taking advantage of mid-infrared observations from the NASA Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which provides an all sky view and therefore full coverage of the nearby clouds, to assess the degree to which their currently known YSO population may be representative of a more complete population. We extend the well established classification method of the Spitzer Legacy teams to archived WISE observations. We have adopted 2MASS photometry as a standard catalogue for comparisons. Besides the massive embedded cluster IC5146 we provide a multiband view of five new embedded clusters in its surroundings that we discovered with WISE. In short, the analysis in- volves the following for the presently studied cluster sample: (1) extraction of 2MASS/WISE/Spitzer photometry in a wide circular region; (2) field-star decontamination to enhance the intrinsic Colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) morphology (essential for a proper derivation of reddening, age, and distance from the Sun); and (3) construction of Colour-magnitude filters, for more contrasted stellar radial density profiles (RDPs).
Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0306595, arXiv:astro-ph/0406003 by other authors