Three Populous Clusters Discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud Age Gap

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

45

Galaxies: Dwarf, Galaxies: Evolution, Galaxies: Formation, Galaxies: Star Clusters, Galaxies: Magellanic Clouds

Scientific paper

In the process of searching the Hubble Space Telescope archive, we have serendipitously discovered three populous Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) clusters with ages that place them in the LMC ``age gap.'' These clusters-NGC 2155, SL 663, and NGC 2121-turn out to have [Fe/H] ~ -1.0 and ages of ~4 Gyr. This puts them in the ``age gap'' between the intermediate-age LMC clusters, the oldest of which are ~2.5 Gyr old, and ESO 121-SC03, which has an age of ~9 Gyr. The addition of these three clusters to the LMC age-metallicity relation has reduced the discrepancy between the age distribution of the LMC clusters and the field stars. Furthermore, it indicates that searches to find more clusters older than ~2.5 Gyr in the LMC are crucial to a better understanding of its global star formation history. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Three Populous Clusters Discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud Age Gap 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 Three Populous Clusters Discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud Age Gap, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Three Populous Clusters Discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud Age Gap will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1575154

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.