Progressive star formation in the young galactic super star cluster NGC 3603

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Progressive star formation in the young galactic super star cluster NGC 3603
المؤلفون: Beccari, Giacomo, Spezzi, Loredana, De Marchi, Guido, Paresce, Francesco, Young, Erick, Andersen, Morten, Panagia, Nino, Balick, Bruce, Bond, Howard, Calzetti, Daniela, Carollo, C. Marcella, Disney, Michael J., Dopita, Michael A., Frogel, Jay A., Hall, Donald N. B., Holtzman, Jon A., Kimble, Randy A., McCarthy, Patrick J., O'Connell, Robert W., Saha, Abhijit, Silk, Joseph I., Trauger, John T., Walker, Alistair R., Whitmore, Bradley C., Windhorst, Rogier A.
سنة النشر: 2010
المجموعة: Astrophysics
مصطلحات موضوعية: Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
الوصف: Early release science observations of the cluster NGC3603 with the WFC3 on the refurbished HST allow us to study its recent star formation history. Our analysis focuses on stars with Halpha excess emission, a robust indicator of their pre-main sequence (PMS) accreting status. The comparison with theoretical PMS isochrones shows that 2/3 of the objects with Halpha excess emission have ages from 1 to 10 Myr, with a median value of 3 Myr, while a surprising 1/3 of them are older than 10 Myr. The study of the spatial distribution of these PMS stars allows us to confirm their cluster membership and to statistically separate them from field stars. This result establishes unambiguously for the first time that star formation in and around the cluster has been ongoing for at least 10-20 Myr, at an apparently increasing rate.
Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal
نوع الوثيقة: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1108
URL الوصول: http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.2795
رقم الأكسشن: edsarx.1007.2795
قاعدة البيانات: arXiv
الوصف
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1108