Galactic clusters and H II regions

Abstract

The galactic clusters and the exciting stars of H II regions are powerful indicators of the spiral structure since these objects lie on or very close to the zero age main sequence (ZAMS). For clusters this behaviour can be confirmed by direct photometric observation. The exciting stars of H II regions are probably so young as not to have evolved from the ZAMS. The coincidence of these objects with the ZAMS indicates that there is little scattering in the absolute magnitudes and, as a consequence, little uncertainty in the determination of distance. This fact reveals itself very distinctly in the case of H II regions, whose exciting stars define the spiral structure considerably better than the stars of the same early spectral types but not connected with H II regions.