VVV search for new young clusters towards the star forming regions in our galaxy: First results

One of the main goals of the "VVV - Vista Variables in the Via Lactea" ESO Large Survey is to search for new star clusters of different ages. In order to trace the early stages of star clusters formation we carrying out a survey of infrared star cluster candidates and stellar groups in the directions of known massive star formation regions. To date, we have identified 47 candidates. Most of them appear compact (with small angular sizes) and very young.