Hunting for open clusters in Gaia DR2: 582 new open clusters in the Galactic disc
[Context] Open clusters are key targets for studies of Galaxy structure and evolution, and stellar physics. Since the Gaia data release 2 (DR2), the discovery of undetected clusters has shown that previous surveys were incomplete. ; [Aims] Our aim is to exploit the Big Data capabilities of machine learning to detect new open clusters in Gaia DR2, and to complete the open cluster sample to enable further studies of the Galactic disc. ; [Methods] We use a machine-learning based methodology to systematically search the Galactic disc for overdensities in the astrometric space and identify the open clusters using photometric information. First, we used an unsupervised clustering algorithm, DBSCAN, to blindly search for these overdensities in Gaia DR2 (l, b, ϖ, μα*, μδ), and then we used a deep learning artificial neural network trained on colour–magnitude diagrams to identify isochrone patterns in these overdensities, and to confirm them as open clusters. ; [Results] We find 582 new open clusters distributed along the Galactic disc in the region |b| < 20°. We detect substructure in complex regions, and identify the tidal tails of a disrupting cluster UBC 274 of ∼3 Gyr located at ∼2 kpc. ; [Conclusions] Adapting the mentioned methodology to a Big Data environment allows us to target the search using the physical properties of open clusters instead of being driven by computational limitations. This blind search for open clusters in the Galactic disc increases the number of known open clusters by 45%. ; Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. The Gaia mission website is http://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia. The authors are current or past members of the ESA Gaia mission team and of the Gaia DPAC. This work was partially supported by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy) through grant ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R and RTI2018-095076-B-C21 (MINECO/FEDER, UE), and MDM-2014-0369 of ICCUB (Unidad de Excelencia "María de Maeztu"). This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2016-754433. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Government (SEV2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (contract TIN2015-65316-P), by Generalitat de Catalunya (contract 2014-SGR-1051). The research leading to these results has also received funding from the collaboration between Fujitsu and BSC (Script Language Platform). L.C. acknowledges support from "programme national de physique stellaire" (PNPS) and from the "programme national cosmologie et galaxies".