HST Photometry of M82 region B

DOI

We present observations obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope of the "fossil" starburst region B in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. By comparing UBVI photometry with models, we derive ages and extinctions for 35 U-band-selected star clusters. We find that the peak epoch of cluster formation occurred ~150Myr ago, in contrast to earlier work that found a peak formation age of 1.1Gyr. The difference is most likely due to our inclusion of U-band data, which are essential for accurate age determinations of young cluster populations. We further show that the previously reported turnover in the cluster luminosity function is probably due to the neglect of the effect of extended sources on the detection limit. The much younger cluster ages we derive clarifies the evolution of the M82 starburst. The M82-B age distribution now overlaps with the ages of the nuclear starburst, the clusters formed on the opposite side of the disk, and the last encounter with M81, some 220Myr ago.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.16679145
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/667/L145
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/667/L145
Related Identifier https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/667/L145
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/667/L145
Provenance
Creator Smith L.J.; Bastian N.; Konstantopoulos I.S.; Gallagher III J.S.,Gieles M.; De Grijs R.; Larsen S.S.; O'Connell R.W.; Westmoquette M.S.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2010
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy