Photometric study of the young open clusters IC 1442, King 21, and Trumpler 7

We carried out the UBVRcIc photometric study of three poorly studied young open clusters IC 1442, King 21, and Trumpler 7 (Tr 7). We obtained 263, 244, and 128 member stars using Gaia Data Release 2 proper motions and parallaxes in IC 1442, King 21, and Tr 7, respectively. The reddening, E(B − V), was derived to be 0.54 ± 0.04, 0.76 ± 0.06, and 0.38 ± 0.04 mag for these clusters. The comparison of observed colour–magnitude diagrams with solar metallicity isochrones yields log(age) = 7.40 ± 0.30, 7.70 ± 0.20, and 7.85 ± 0.25 yr and corresponding distances of 2847 ± 238, 2622 ± 156, and 1561 ± 74 pc for IC 1442, King 21, and Tr 7, respectively. The estimated mass function (MF) slopes are found to be −1.94 ± 0.18, −1.54 ± 0.32, and −2.31 ± 0.29 for IC 1442, King 21, and Tr 7, respectively. The study of MF slopes done separately in the inner and the outer regions of these clusters gives a steeper slope in the outer region, which suggests spatial variation in slope and mass segregation in the clusters. We found evidence of mass segregation after the dynamical study in these clusters. The obtained relaxation time, TE, is 74, 26, and 34 Myr for the clusters IC 1442, King 21, and Tr 7, respectively. The mass segregation in IC 1442 may be caused by early dynamical relaxation. The estimated TE is well below the ages of King 21 and Tr 7, which indicates that these clusters are dynamically relaxed.