The Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 of the Hubble Space T elescope has been used to obtain highresolution images of NGC 4038/4039 that go roughly 3 mag deeper in V than previous observations made during cycle 2. These new images allow us to measure the luminosity functions (LFs) of clusters and stars over a range of 8 mag To Ðrst order, the LF is a power law, with expo-. nent a \ [2.12^0.04. However, using a variety of di †erent techniques to decouple the cluster and stellar LFs, which overlap in the range we Ðnd an apparent bend in the young cluster 9^0.1, and is dominated by young red and blue supergiants. The star clusters of the Antennae appear slightly resolved, with median e †ective radii of 4^1 pc, similar to or perhaps slightly larger than those of globular clusters in our Galaxy. However, the radial extents of some of the very young clusters (ages less than 10 Myr) are much larger than those of old globular clusters (e.g., the outer radius of knot S exceeds 450 pc). This may indicate that the tidal forces from the galaxies have not had time to remove some of the outer stars from the young clusters. A combination of the UBV I colors, Ha morphology, and Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) spectra enables us to age date the clusters in different regions of the Antennae. Star clusters around the edge of the dust overlap region appear to be the youngest, with ages Myr, while clusters in the western loop appear to be 5È10 Myr old. Many star [5 clusters in the northeastern star formation region appear to be D100 Myr old, with an LF in V that has shifted faintward by D1.0 mag relative to the younger (0È20 Myr) clusters that dominate over most of the rest of the galaxy. A third cluster population consists of intermediate-age clusters (D500 Myr) that probably formed during the initial encounter responsible for ejecting the tails. A handful of old globular clusters from the progenitor galaxies are also identiÐed. Most of these lie around NGC 4039, where the lower background facilitates their detection. Age estimates derived from GHRS spectroscopy yield 3^1 Myr for knot K (just south of the nucleus of NGC 4038) and 7^1 Myr for knot S in the western loop, in good agreement with ages derived from the UBV I colors. E †ective gas outÑow velocities from knots S and K are estimated to be about 25È30 km s~1, based on the above cluster ages and the sizes of the surrounding Ha bubbles. However, the measured widths of the interstellar absorption lines suggest dispersion velocities of D400 km s~1 along the lines of sight to knots S and K.
We present new (B, I) photometry for the globular cluster systems in eight Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), obtained with the ACS/WFC camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. In the very rich cluster systems that reside within these giant galaxies, we find that all have strongly bimodal color distributions that are clearly resolved by the metallicity-sensitive (B −I) index. Furthermore, the mean colors and internal color range of the blue subpopulation are remarkably similar from one galaxy to the next, to well within the ±0.02 − 0.03-mag uncertainties in the foreground reddenings and photometric zeropoints. By contrast, the mean color and internal color range for the red subpopulation differ from one galaxy to the next by twice as much as the blue population. All the BCGs show population gradients, with much higher relative numbers of red clusters within 5 kpc of their centers, consistent with their having formed at later times than the blue, metalpoor population. A striking new feature of the color distributions emerging from our data is that for the brightest clusters (M I < −10.5) the color distribution becomes broad and less obviously bimodal. This effect was first noticed by Ostrov et al. (1998) andDirsch et al. (2003) for the Fornax giant NGC 1399; our data suggest that it may be a characteristic of many BCGs and perhaps other large galaxies. Our data indicate that the blue (metal-poor) clusters brighter than M I ≃ −10 become progressively redder with increasing luminosity, following a mass/metallicity scaling relation Z ∼ M 0.55 . A basically similar relation has been found for M87 by Strader et al. (2005). We argue that these GCS characteristics are consistent with a hierarchical-merging galaxy formation picture in which the metal-poor clusters formed in protogalactic clouds or dense starburst complexes with gas masses in the range 10 7 − 10 10 M ⊙ , but where the more massive clusters on average formed in bigger clouds with deeper potential wells where more preenrichment could occur.
We determine the age distribution of star clusters in the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/9) for two mass-limited samples (M > 3 x 10^4 M_{\odot} and M > 2 x 10^5 M_{\odot}). This is based on integrated broadband UBVI and narrowband H-alpha photometry from deep images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. We find that the age distribution of the clusters declines steeply, approximately as dN/d\tau \propto \tau^{-1}. The median age of the clusters is ~10^7 yr, which we interpret as evidence for rapid disruption ("infant mortality"). It is very likely that most of the young clusters are not gravitationally bound and were disrupted near the times they formed by the energy and momentum input from young stars to the interstellar matter of the protoclusters. At least 20% and possibly all stars form in clusters and/or associations, including those that are unbound and short-lived.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the ApJ Letters; Submitted 2004 July 29; accepted 2005 August
We report the large effort that is producing comprehensive high-level young star cluster (YSC) catalogs for a significant fraction of galaxies observed with the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) Hubble treasury program. We present the methodology developed to extract cluster positions, verify their genuine nature, produce multiband photometry (from NUV to NIR), and derive their physical properties via spectral energy distribution fitting analyses. We use the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 628 as a test case for demonstrating the impact that LEGUS will have on our understanding of the formation and evolution of YSCs and compact stellar associations within their host galaxy. Our analysis of the cluster luminosity function from the UV to the NIR finds a steepening at the bright end and at all wavelengths suggesting a dearth of luminous clusters. The cluster mass function of NGC 628The 1 is consistent with a power-law distribution of slopes~-2 and a truncation of a few times 10 5 M . After their formation, YSCs and compact associations follow different evolutionary paths. YSCs survive for a longer time frame, confirming their being potentially bound systems. Associations disappear on timescales comparable to hierarchically organized star-forming regions, suggesting that they are expanding systems. We find massindependent cluster disruption in the inner region of NGC 628, while in the outer part of the galaxy there is little or no disruption. We observe faster disruption rates for low mass (10 4 M ) clusters, suggesting that a massdependent component is necessary to fully describe the YSC disruption process in NGC 628.Astrophysical Journal, 841:131 (26pp), 2017 June 1 https:
We describe the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early Release Science (ERS) observations in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) South field. The new WFC3 ERS data provide calibrated, drizzled mosaics in the UV filters F225W, F275W, and F336W, as well as in the near-IR filters F098M (Y s ), F125W (J), and F160W (H) with 1-2 HST orbits per filter. Together with the existing HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) GOODS-South mosaics in the BViz filters, these panchromatic 10-band ERS data cover 40-50 arcmin 2 at 0.2-1.7 μm in wavelength at 0. 07-0. 15 FWHM resolution and 0. 090 Multidrizzled pixels to depths of AB 26.0-27.0 mag (5σ ) for point sources, and AB 25.5-26.5 mag for compact galaxies. In this paper, we describe (1) the scientific rationale, and the data taking plus reduction procedures of the panchromatic 10-band ERS mosaics, (2) the procedure of generating object catalogs across the 10 different ERS filters, and the specific star-galaxy separation techniques used, and (3) the reliability and completeness of the object catalogs from the WFC3 ERS mosaics. The excellent 0. 07-0. 15 FWHM resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS makes star-galaxy separation straightforward over a factor of 10 in wavelength to AB 25-26 mag from the UV to the near-IR, respectively. Our main results are: (1) proper motion of faint ERS stars is detected over 6 years at 3.06 ± 0.66 mas year −1 (4.6σ ), consistent with Galactic structure models; (2) both the Galactic star counts and the galaxy counts show mild but significant trends of decreasing count slopes from the mid-UV to the near-IR over a factor of 10 in wavelength; (3) combining the 10-band ERS counts with the panchromatic Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey counts at the bright end (10 mag AB 20 mag) and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field counts in the BV izY s J H filters at the faint end (24 mag AB 30 mag) yields galaxy counts that are well measured over the entire flux range 10 mag AB 30 mag for 0.2-2 μm in wavelength; (4) simple luminosity+density evolution models can fit the galaxy counts over this entire flux range. However, no single model can explain the counts over this entire flux range in all 10 filters simultaneously. More sophisticated models of galaxy assembly are needed to reproduce the overall constraints provided by the current panchromatic galaxy counts for 10 mag AB 30 mag over a factor of 10 in wavelength.
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