The Initial Mass Function In The Star-Forming Region NGC 346

Details The Initial Mass Function In The Star-Forming Region NGC 346 The Initial Mass Function In The Star-Forming Region NGC 346

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...210.1601s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 210, #16.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.115

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

2

Scientific paper

One of the major issues in astrophysics is whether the initial mass function (IMF), the relationship that describes the mass distribution of a newly formed stellar population, is universal or, alternatively, affected by environmental effects. In particular, establishing whether the IMF has been constant over the evolution of the universe, or if it varies with redshift and/or metallicity, has crucial consequences on the evolution, surface brightness, chemical enrichment and baryonic content of galaxies, and on the evolution of light and matter in the universe.
The extremely young star cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud is a valuable astrophysical laboratory for probing the universality of the IMF in a galaxy in which star formation (SF) is occurring under conditions closer to those that presumably existed at much earlier phases in the evolution of the universe, than those we can nowadays observe in the Milky Way.
We present a detailed census of the stellar content of NGC 346, as derived from recently acquired deep ACS F555W ( V) and F814W ( I) images.
The analysis of the color-magnitude diagram indicates that NGC 346 has an age of 3+/-1 Myr, and reveals the presence of hundreds of pre-main sequence stars in the mass range between 0.6 and 3 solar masses.
We derive the luminosity and the mass function for the stars down to 1 Mo. We find that the slope of mass function is well consistent with the value derived by Salpeter for the solar neighborhood. We find also evidences of primordial mass segregation.
We discuss the implications of our results in NGC 346 for our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Initial Mass Function In The Star-Forming Region NGC 346 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Initial Mass Function In The Star-Forming Region NGC 346, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Initial Mass Function In The Star-Forming Region NGC 346 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1028610