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L. R. Carlson (STScI), M. Sirianni (STScI/ESA), J. L. Hora (Harvard/CfA), E. Sabbi (STScI), A. Nota (STScI/ESA), M. Meixner (STScI), M. Clampin (NASA/Goddard), J. Gallagher (U. Wisconsin), M. S. Oey (U. Michigan), A. Pasquali (Inst. Astronomy, ETH), L. J. Smith (UCL), M. Tosi (Bologna Obs.), R. Walterbos (U. New Mexico)
We present results on the star cluster NGC 602 from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) and complimentary data from Spitzer Space Telescope's (SST's) Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). NGC 602 (N90) is an extremely young open cluster in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). At a distance of only about 60 kpc, the SMC offers a view of star formation at a low chemical abundance Z~0.004, making it a good analog to the early universe in terms of examining the processes and patterns of star formation. This cluster in particular is ideally suited to this aim. Its location in the wing of the SMC means that, while its chemical properties should be similar to those of the rest of the galaxy, it is relatively isolated. We also examine a complimentary region away from any clusters in an attempt to disentangle the field population from the cluster population. We develop Color-Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs) to examine the relation between the data in V (<28 Mag), I (<27 Mag), and IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0-micron bands (<18 Mag). Using isochrone fitting, we estimate the ages of observed populations, the metallicity of the cluster, and the characteristics of the circumstellar environment. We examine the mass function and look for evidence of mass segregation within the cluster. We characterize the entire population of cluster stars. Preliminary analysis of the data shows evidence of a rich pre-main sequence population.
This research has been funded by NASA/STScI GO-10248.07 and NASA/NAG-12595.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.