The snapshot Hubble U-band cluster survey (SHUCS). II. The star cluster population of NGC 2997
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
- Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF (United Kingdom)
- Space Telescope Science Institute and European Space Agency, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Australian Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670 (Australia)
- Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen (Netherlands)
- CRAQ - Université Laval, 1045, Avenue de la Médecine, G1V 0A6 Québec (Canada)
We study the star cluster population of NGC 2997, a giant spiral galaxy located at 9.5 Mpc and targeted by the Snapshot Hubble U-band Cluster Survey (SHUCS). Combining our U-band imaging from SHUCS with archival BVI imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope, we select a high confidence sample of clusters in the circumnuclear ring and disk through a combination of automatic detection procedures and visual inspection. The cluster luminosity functions in all four filters can be approximated by power laws with indices of –1.7 to –2.3. Some deviations from pure power-law shape are observed, hinting at the presence of a high-mass truncation in the cluster mass function. However, upon inspection of the cluster mass function, we find it is consistent with a pure power law of index –2.2 ± 0.2 despite a slight bend at ∼2.5 × 10{sup 4} M {sub ☉}. No statistically significant truncation is observed. From the cluster age distributions, we find a low rate of disruption (ζ ∼ –0.1) in both the disk and circumnuclear ring. Finally, we estimate the cluster formation efficiency (Γ) over the last 100 Myr in each region, finding 7% ± 2% for the disk, 12% ± 4% for the circumnuclear ring, and 10% ± 3% for the entire UBVI footprint. This study highlights the need for wide-field UBVI coverage of galaxies to study cluster populations in detail, though a small sample of clusters can provide significant insight into the characteristics of the population.
- OSTI ID:
- 22342281
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 148, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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