AAS 199th meeting, Washington, DC, January 2002
Session 57. Open Clusters
Display, Tuesday, January 8, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[57.03] The Mass Function and Structure of the Praesepe Cluster: Additional Proper Motion Candidates

J. D. Adams (BU), J. R. Stauffer (IPAC), M. F. Skrutskie (UMASS Amherst), D. G. Monet (USNO), S. F. Portegies Zwart (MIT ), C. A. Beichman (JPL)

A wide field proper motion study in Praesepe has provided a new view of an "old" open cluster. Multiple epoch point source positions from 2MASS and the PMM program's digitized POSS database have determined proper motions for ~ 280,000 stars in the Praesepe field, covering over 100 square degrees, resulting in a total of ~1000 candidate members down to 0.1 M\odot. We will discuss the observed dynamical properties of the cluster, including the radial dependence of the mass function and halo structure, and compare them with results from recent open cluster N body simulations.

This presentation makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jdadams@bu.edu

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