Structural parameters of seven small magellanic cloud intermediate-age and old star clusters

Katharina Glatt*, Eva K. Grebel, John S. Gallagher, Antonella Nota, Elena Sabbi, Marco Sirianni, Gisella Clementini, Gary Da Costa, Monica Tosi, Daniel Harbeck, Andreas Koch, Andrea Kayser

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    51 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We present structural parameters for the seven intermediate-age and old star clusters NGC121, Lindsay1, Kron3, NGC339, NGC416, Lindsay38, and NGC419 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We fit King profiles and Elson, Fall, and Freeman profiles to both surface-brightness and star-count data taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Clusters older than ∼ 1Gyr show a spread in cluster core radii that increases with age, while the youngest clusters have relatively compact cores. No evidence for post-core-collapse clusters was found. We find no correlation between core radius and distance from the SMC center, although consistent with other studies of dwarf galaxies, some relatively old and massive clusters have low densities. The oldest SMC star cluster, the only globular NGC121, is the most elliptical object of the studied clusters. No correlation is seen between ellipticity and distance from the SMC center. The structures of these massive intermediate-age (1-8 Gyr) SMC star clusters thus appear to primarily result from internal evolutionary processes.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1403-1416
    Number of pages14
    JournalAstronomical Journal
    Volume138
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2009

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