Young star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud: NGC 1805 and 1818 |
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| Authors: | R A Johnson S F Beaulieu G F Gilmore J Hurley B X Santiago N R Tanvir R A W Elson † |
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| Institution: | Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA;Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal Rio Grande do Sul, 91510-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil;Department of Physical Science, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB |
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| Abstract: | We present colour–magnitude diagrams for two rich (≈104 M⊙) Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters with ages ≈107 yr, constructed from optical and near-infrared data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope . These data are part of an HST project to study LMC clusters with a range of ages. In this paper we investigate the massive star content of the young clusters, and determine the cluster ages and metallicities, paying particular attention to Be-star and blue-straggler populations and evidence of age spreads. We compare our data with detailed stellar-population simulations to investigate the turn-off structure of ≈25 Myr stellar systems, highlighting the complexity of the blue-straggler phenomenon. |
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| Keywords: | blue stragglers stars: emission-line Be Magellanic Clouds galaxies: star clusters |
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