Andrea Gilbert

MPE

Poster Title: Ages, Masses and IMFs of Super Star Clusters in NGC 1569

Abstract: Keck/NIRSPEC spectroscopy and spectral population synthesis models permit new determinations of the properties of several super star clusters (SSCs) in the dwarf irregular starburst NGC 1569. We constrain the age of a cluster using low-resolution spectra and two techniques: the effective spectral type of a cluster determined from model atmospheres, and spectral population synthesis models based on empirical stellar libraries. The near-IR light is dominated by populations with ages of 4 Myr for SSC A, 15 Myr for SSC B, and 4 to 40 Myr for several other clusters. For the brightest clusters we use high-resolution spectra to measure the intrinsic stellar velocity dispersions and thus derive virial masses. The components of double cluster SSC A have masses of 0.30 and 0.34 million M_sun, and SSC B has a mass of 0.18 million M_sun. Comparison of these measurements with population synthesis predictions implies that these three SSCs are consistent with having normal IMFs, and thus they have the potential to evolve into globular clusters.

Link to poster: N/A