Kings of the milky way: a homogeneous Gaia DR3 analysis of king open clusters and the galactic disc metallicity gradient
Advances in Space Research, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.asr.2026.08.018
- Dergi Adı: Advances in Space Research
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Artic & Antarctic Regions, Compendex, INSPEC, MEDLINE, Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Engineering Source (EBSCO)
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Galaxy: abundances, Galaxy: disc, Galaxy: Open cluster and associations: general, Galaxy: stellar kinematics
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This study aims to establish an internally homogeneous set of structural, astrophysical, and kinematical parameters for King open clusters and to assess their role as tracers of the Galactic thin disc. We present a homogeneous structural, astrophysical, and kinematical analysis of 27 King open clusters using high-precision Gaia DR3 astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy. Probable members are selected through astrometric criteria, from which mean trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions are derived, while structural parameters are obtained by fitting King surface-density profiles. Cluster reddenings, distances, metallicities, and ages are determined via a homogeneous Markov Chain Monte Carlo isochrone-fitting approach applied to Gaia colour-magnitude diagrams. The derived parameters span (Formula presented) -(Formula presented) mag, metallicities of (Formula presented) to (Formula presented) dex, ages from 17 to 6166 Myr, and heliocentric distances between 739 and 6272 pc. A comparison between astrometric and isochrone-based distances yields a median parallax difference of (Formula presented) as, indicating a good level of internal consistency between the photometric and astrometric distance scales within the adopted homogeneous framework. Using the resulting homogeneous parameter set, we then investigate the spatial distribution and orbital properties of the King clusters within the Galactic disc.The radial metallicity behaviour of the King clusters is also examined using three complementary Galactic distance definitions and compared with the metallicity-radius relations obtained independently from 164 spectroscopically analysed open clusters from the literature. The King-cluster gradients are close to (Formula presented) dex kpc−1 and are broadly consistent with those of the external reference sample, indicating that the homogeneously analysed King clusters follow the negative metallicity-radius trend traced by the broader thin-disc open-cluster population. Flatter gradients are found for young clusters, suggesting more homogeneous chemical enrichment at recent epochs. When dynamical constraints are applied to reduce the effects of radial migration and orbital blurring, the inferred gradient remains close to (Formula presented) dex kpc−1. The use of a strictly homogeneous analysis framework reduces inter-study systematics and provides a consistent astrophysical, chemical, kinematical, and orbital reference dataset for the King open-cluster sample.