No abstract

The morphology of HII regions around young star clusters provides insight into the timescales and physical processes that clear a cluster's natal gas. We study ∼700 young clusters (≤10Myr) in three nearby spiral galaxies (NGC 7793, NGC 4395, and NGC 1313) using Hubble Space Telescope (HST ) imaging from LEGUS (Legacy Extra-Galactic Ultraviolet Survey). Clusters are classified by their Hα morphology (concentrated, partially exposed, no-emission) and whether they have neighboring clusters (which could affect the clearing timescales). Through visual inspection of the HST images, and analysis of ages, reddenings, and stellar masses from spectral energy distributions fitting, together with the (U-B), (V-I) colors, we find: 1) the median ages indicate a progression from concentrated (∼3 Myr), to partially exposed (∼4 Myr), to no Hα emission (>5Myr), consistent with the expected temporal evolution of HII regions and previous results. However, 2) similarities in the age distributions for clusters with concentrated and partially exposed Hα morphologies imply a short timescale for gas clearing ( 1Myr). Also, 3) our cluster sample's median mass is ∼1000 M , and a significant fraction (∼20%) contain one or more bright red sources (presumably supergiants), which can mimic reddening effects. Finally, 4) the median E(B-V) values for clusters with concentrated Hα and those without Hα emission appear to be more similar than expected (∼0.18 vs. ∼0.14, respectively), but when accounting for stochastic effects, clusters without Hα emission are less reddened. To mitigate stochastic effects, we experiment with synthesizing more massive clusters by stacking fluxes of clusters within each Hα morphological class. Composite isolated clusters also reveal a color and age progression for Hα morphological classes, consistent with analysis of the individual clusters.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The unsatisfactory present state of the classification system for WN stars is summarised and the three dimensions of a new system are presented and justified.

No abstract