Thursday, February 23, 2012

1202.5004 (D. Harbeck et al.)

Intermediate Old Star Clusters in a Young Starburst: The case of NGC 5253    [PDF]

D. Harbeck, J. Gallagher III, D. Crnojević
We investigate the star cluster population in the outer parts of the starburst galaxy NGC 5253 using archive images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Based on the F415W, F555W, and F814W photometry ages and masses are estimated for bona-fide star cluster candidates. We find three potentially massive ($\ge 10 \time 10^5$ \Msun) star clusters at ages of order of 1-2 Gyr, implying, if confirmed, a high global star formation rate in NGC 5253 during that epoch. This result underlines earlier findings that the current star burst is just one episode in an very active dwarf galaxy.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5004

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