Red giant clump in the Tycho-2 catalog

The interstellar extinction and photometric distance are calculated for each of the stars. The selected stars are shown to form a selection-unbiased sample of RGC stars within about 350 pc of the Sun with the addition of more distant stars.

The distribution of the selected stars in space and their motion are consistent with the assumption that the RGC contains Galactic disk stars with various ages and metallicities, including a significant fraction of stars younger than 1Gyr with masses of more than 2 solar masses. These young stars show differences of their statistical characteristics from those of older RGC stars, including differences in the variations of their distribution density with distance from the Galactic plane and in the dispersion of their velocities found using radial velocities and proper motions.