Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Sep 1977
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1977apj...216..372b&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 216, Sept. 1, 1977, p. 372-380.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
156
Magellanic Clouds, Main Sequence Stars, Stellar Evolution, Stellar Luminosity, Error Analysis, Galactic Evolution, Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, Star Distribution, Stellar Magnitude, Stellar Spectrophotometry
Scientific paper
A main-sequence luminosity function between absolute visual magnitudes of zero and +4 is derived for a field region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Several techniques developed to permit photometry in very crowded fields are described, and sources of systematic error near the plate limit are discussed. The final luminosity function qualitatively resembles the solar-neighborhood main-sequence luminosity function but changes slope at a point close to a magnitude brighter. A natural interpretation of this result is that the bulk of star formation began 3 to 5 billion years ago in the LMC, rather than 10 billion years ago as in the Galaxy. This interpretation permits recovery from the LMC data of Salpeter's (1955) initial luminosity function for star formation in the solar neighborhood.
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