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The Oldest Star Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Kenneth J. Mighell ,
Ata Sarajedini  and
Rica S. French
Kenneth J. Mighell
Affiliation:
Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, P. O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726-6732, USA
Ata Sarajedini
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
Rica S. French
Affiliation:
Middle Tennessee State University, Physics & Astronomy Department, WPS 219, P. O. Box 71, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA

Abstract

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We present our analysis of archival Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) observations in F450W (~B) and F555W (~V) of the intermediate-age populous star clusters NGC 121, NGC 339, NGC 361, NGC 416, and Kron 3 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We use published photometry of two other SMC populous star clusters, Lindsay 1 and Lindsay 113, to investigate the age sequence of these seven star clusters in order to improve our understanding of the formation chronology of the SMC. We analyzed the V vs B–V and MV vs (B–V)o color-magnitude diagrams of these populous Small Magellanic Cloud star clusters using a variety of techniques and determined their ages, metallicities, and reddenings. These new data enable us to improve the age-metallicity relation of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud. In particular, we find that a closed-box continuous star-formation model does not reproduce the age-metallicity relation adequately. However, a theoretical model punctuated by bursts of star formation is in better agreement with the observational data. The full details of this analysis are reported in Mighell, Sarajedini, & French (1998, AJ, 116, 2395).

Type
Part 6. Stellar Clusters
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 190: New Views of the Magellanic Clouds , 1999 , pp. 445
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999