NGC 346: Mass Function at Low Metallicity

Details NGC 346: Mass Function at Low Metallicity NGC 346: Mass Function at Low Metallicity

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20922805s&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #228.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is an ideal "empirical" laboratory to study the impact of low-metallicity (Z=0.004) and low-dust content (30 times lower than our Galaxy) on the star formation process. In addition its close proximity allows us to perform a detailed and accurate census of its stellar content.
In the quest of understanding how star formation occurs and propagates in the SMC, we acquired deep F555W and F814W HST/ACS images of NGC 346, the most massive and active star forming region of this galaxy.
Our observations allowed us to sample the luminosity function of NGC 346 down to a limiting magnitude of m(F555W)=26.5. Our observations reveal that NGC 346 stellar content is concentrated in a number of small compact sub-clusters, which vary in density and morphology.
We present the luminosity function and the present-day mass function of NGC 346 in the 0.8-40 Mo range, with the goal to establish whether differences in the dust-to-gas ratio have an impact on the slope(s) of the stellar mass function.
Variations of the mass function with radial distance from the center of gravity of NGC 346 will indicate whether the stellar association is mass segregated.
We also present the mass distribution of the sub-clusters we identified in the area, and their spatial mass distribution.
We discuss the implication of our results for our understanding of star cluster formation and evolution.

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