HST color-magnitude diagrams of the LMC

DOI

We present results on the analysis of background field stars found in Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations of six of the old globular clusters of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Treated as contaminants by the globular cluster analysts, we produce (V-I, V) color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of the field stars and use them to explore the LMC's star formation history. The photometry approaches V {~} 26, well below the turnoff of an ancient ({~} 14 Gyr) LMC population of stars. The field star CMDs are generally characterized by an upper main sequence broadened by stellar evolution, an old red giant branch, a prominent red clump, and an unevolved lower main sequence. The CMDs also contain a few visual differences, the most obvious of which is the smeared appearance of the NGC 1916 field caused by heavy differential reddening. More subtly, the base of the subgiant branch near the old turnoff appears extended in V, and the red giant branch appears broad in V-I in four of the fields but not in the NGC 1754 field.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.51172244
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/117/2244
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/117/2244
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/117/2244
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/117/2244
Provenance
Creator Olsen K.A.G.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2001
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