The stellar population of NGC 3603 from adaptive optics observations

Details The stellar population of NGC 3603 from adaptive optics observations The stellar population of NGC 3603 from adaptive optics observations

Jan 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997spie.3136..488e&link_type=abstract

Conference Paper, SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 3126, p. 488-499.

Physics

Optics

Adaptive Optics, Star Formation, H Ii Regions, Astronomical Photometry, Telescopes, Color-Magnitude Diagram, Color-Color Diagram, Stellar Luminosity, Main Sequence Stars, Stellar Models, Stellar Mass

Scientific paper

Among the most interesting open problems in the theory of star formation is whether regions of high-mass star formation also form large numbers of low-mass stars. To answer this question reliably, it is necessary to resolve the crowded central clusters of some of these regions. NGC 3603 is the most massive optically visible giant H II region in our Galaxy. We have observed its central cluster with the SHARP II camera attached to the ADONIS adaptive optics system at the 3.6-m telescope in La Silla, Chile. From the photometry of more than 1200 stars, we have constructed NIR color-color and color-magnitude diagrams. We find a well-defined main sequence above 4 solar masses; the stars with lower masses have not yet reached the main sequence. By comparison with pre-main-sequence evolutionary models, we estimate the age for these lower mass stars to be less than 1 million years. This estimate is supported by the shape of the luminosity function as well. Interpreting the luminosity function in terms of stellar masses, we can construct the initial mass function in NGC 3603 down to about 1 solar mass. We do not find a lower mass cutoff down to this value, which shows that there is indeed prodigious formation of low-mass stars in NGC 3603.

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