TY - JOUR
T1 - Progressive star formation in the young galactic super star cluster NGC 3603
AU - Beccari, Giacomo
AU - Spezzi, Loredana
AU - De Marchi, Guido
AU - Paresce, Francesco
AU - Young, Erick
AU - Andersen, Morten
AU - Panagia, Nino
AU - Balick, Bruce
AU - Bond, Howard
AU - Calzetti, Daniela
AU - Carollo, C. Marcella
AU - Disney, Michael J.
AU - Dopita, Michael A.
AU - Frogel, Jay A.
AU - Hall, Donald N.B.
AU - Holtzman, Jon A.
AU - Kimble, Randy A.
AU - McCarthy, Patrick J.
AU - O'Connell, Robert W.
AU - Saha, Abhijit
AU - Silk, Joseph I.
AU - Trauger, John T.
AU - Walker, Alistair R.
AU - Whitmore, Bradley C.
AU - Windhorst, Rogier A.
PY - 2010/9/10
Y1 - 2010/9/10
N2 - Early Release Science observations of the cluster NGC 3603 with the WFC3 on the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope allow us to study its recent star formation history. Our analysis focuses on stars with Hαexcess emission, a robust indicator of their pre-main sequence (PMS) accreting status. The comparison with theoretical PMS isochrones shows that 2/3 of the objects with Hαexcess emission have ages from 1 to 10 Myr, with a median value of 3 Myr, while a surprising 1/3 of them are older than 10 Myr. The study of the spatial distribution of these PMS stars allows us to confirm their cluster membership and to statistically separate them from field stars. This result establishes unambiguously for the first time that star formation in and around the cluster has been ongoing for at least 10-20 Myr, at an apparently increasing rate.
AB - Early Release Science observations of the cluster NGC 3603 with the WFC3 on the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope allow us to study its recent star formation history. Our analysis focuses on stars with Hαexcess emission, a robust indicator of their pre-main sequence (PMS) accreting status. The comparison with theoretical PMS isochrones shows that 2/3 of the objects with Hαexcess emission have ages from 1 to 10 Myr, with a median value of 3 Myr, while a surprising 1/3 of them are older than 10 Myr. The study of the spatial distribution of these PMS stars allows us to confirm their cluster membership and to statistically separate them from field stars. This result establishes unambiguously for the first time that star formation in and around the cluster has been ongoing for at least 10-20 Myr, at an apparently increasing rate.
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U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1108
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1108
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:78049513353
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 720
SP - 1108
EP - 1117
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
ER -