2007A&A...471..573Y

We report the discovery of a new young stellar cluster and molecular cloud located in the far outer Galaxy, seen towards IRAS 06361-0142, and we characterise their properties. Near-infrared images obtained with VLT/ISAAC through JHKs filters, millimetre line observations of CO(1-0) obtained with SEST, and VLA 6cm continuum maps obtained from archive data. The cloud and cluster are located at a distance of 7kpc and a Galactocentric distance of 15kpc, well in the far outer Galaxy. Morphologically, IRAS 06361-0142 appears as a cluster of several tens of stars surrounded by a nearly spherical nebular cavity centred at the position of the IRAS source. The cluster appears composed of low and intermediate-mass, young reddened stars with a large fraction having cleared the inner regions of their circumstellar discs responsible for (H-Ks) colour excess. The observations are compatible with a 4Myr cluster with variable spatial extinction between A_v=6 and A_v=13.