High-mass stars on VVV Clusters

by Sebastián Ramírez Alegría

The VVV and VVV-X surveys have contributed to the discovery of young cluster candidates. But the confirmation of these objects as true clusters demands the use of additional data. An extended spectroscopic follow-up is time consuming but, applied on the most interesting candidates, may provide a physical characterization of the stellar population (distance, extinction or radial velocities) and reveal the presence of a peculiar high-mass stellar population. Normally the spectroscopic follow-up focus on the most massive star in the clusters, allowing to study the high-mass stars found in clustered environments.

In this talk I will review discoveries and studies in the field of high mass stars, developed using the VVV data, presenting some of the VVV clusters with a confirmed population of evolved high-mass stars (WR, supergiants, RSG): VVV CL041, CL074, CL021, CL022, CL023, and CL024.