STAR FORMATION HISTORY IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD: THE CASE OF NGC 602
- Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universita degli Studi di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD (United States)
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
- Dipartimento di Fisica 'Enrico Fermi', Universita di Pisa, largo Pontecorvo 3, Pisa I-56127 (Italy)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States)
Deep Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys photometry of the young cluster NGC 602, located in the remote low-density 'wing' of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), reveals numerous pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars as well as young stars on the main sequence. The resolved stellar content thus provides a basis for studying the star formation history (SFH) into recent times and constraining several stellar population properties, such as the present-day mass function (PDMF), the initial mass function, and the binary fraction. To better characterize the PMS population, we present a new set of model stellar evolutionary tracks for this evolutionary phase with metallicity appropriate for the SMC (Z = 0.004). We use a stellar population synthesis code, which takes into account a full range of stellar evolution phases to derive our best estimate for the SFH in the region by comparing observed and synthetic color-magnitude diagrams. The derived PDMF for NGC 602 is consistent with that resulting from the synthetic diagrams. The star formation rate in the region has increased with time on a scale of tens of Myr, reaching (0.3-0.7) x 10{sup -3} M {sub sun} yr{sup -1} in the last 2.5 Myr, comparable to what is found in Galactic OB associations. Star formation is most complete in the main cluster but continues at moderate levels in the gas-rich periphery of the nebula.
- OSTI ID:
- 21269273
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 137, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/137/3/3668; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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