The morphology of star clusters in the SMC
- NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (USA) Trieste Universita (Italy) Osservatorio Astronomico, Trieste (Italy) Athens National Observatory (Greece)
The projected ellipticities of 34 populous SMC star clusters have been derived by means of PDS 1010A scans and a computer interactive method of reduction implemented on an Apollo 570 workstation. A pair of J and R plates taken with the 1.2 m UK Schmidt telescope in Australia were used. Radial ellipticity variations within individual globular clusters seem to be a common phenomenon for the SMC clusters, similar to that observed in the LMC clusters where the innerparts are more elliptical than the outer ones in 95 percent of the cases. The derived ellipticities which correspond to the innermost part of the cluster at radial distances near to half-mass radii have been found to be statistically more elliptical than those of the LMC, known to be more elliptical than those of the Galaxy. The dynamical masses of the clusters seem to correlate with ellipticities supporting the hypothesis that, either the gravitational field of the parent galaxy being a dominant factor affect slower the shape of the high mass clusters and/or the most massive clusters, being dynamically younger, retain their original shape. 30 refs.
- OSTI ID:
- 6550268
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal; (USA), Vol. 100; ISSN 0004-6256
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
STAR CLUSTERS
MORPHOLOGY
AGE ESTIMATION
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
IMAGE PROCESSING
PHOTOGRAPHY
STAR EVOLUTION
TELESCOPES
GALAXIES
PROCESSING
640105* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Galaxies
640102 - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
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