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Authors: Susnata Chattopdhyay, Priyadarshan Chaki, Niravra Nag About: Astrometric and Kinematic Analysis of Pearl Cluster (NGC 3766) using Gaia DR3 Duration: Apr - May 2026

What's up with the Pearl Cluster?

In this study, we analyze the open star cluster NGC 3766, commonly known as the Pearl Cluster, to compare the reliability and accuracy of modern space-based measurements, specifically those from Gaia DR3, with traditional ground-based measurements, such as those presented by Yadav et al. (2013). We present a pipeline to segregate the most probable cluster members from field stars by combining Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) with a Bayesian probabilistic framework. We then use several methods to investigate the astrometric, kinematic, structural, and photometric properties of NGC 3766, most of which were not calculated in any earlier literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. Our analysis indicates that NGC 3766 is a very young (age ∼ 25 Myr) and relatively metal-rich open cluster that has not yet completed a full revolution around the Milky Way. However, the large uncertainties associated with some of the derived parameters prevent us from drawing firm conclusions regarding them. The key findings of this work are summarized in the table on the last page of the report. 

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