1999/12/22 by Torsten Boeker, T. Boeker, Boeker, T.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Measurement and Metrology Techniques #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9912481
latex2e, 5 pages, needs file EslabStyle.cls To appear in the proceedings of the 33rd ESLAB symposium, (F. Favata, A. A. Kaas, & A. Wilson, eds.)
arxiv created 1999/12/22 · openalex publication_date 1999/12/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have revealed that a large fraction of late-type (Sc and later) spiral galaxies harbor a bright, compact stellar cluster in their dynamical centers. Statistics of the mass, age, and star formation history of these clusters as a function of their host galaxy's Hubble type can be used to constrain models of secular galaxy evolution. Since late-type spirals by definition do not possess a prominent bulge, their nuclear clusters are more easily separated from the underlying disk population. Their spectroscopic properties can thus be studied from ground-based observations. Here, I will discuss plans for, and first results of, a program to study a sample of known nuclear clusters in late-type spirals. For one galaxy (IC 342), we have used high-resolution near infrared spectroscopy to determine the cluster mass directly via its stellar velocity dispersion. The analysis conclusively shows a very low mass-to-light ratio for the nuclear cluster in IC 342, indicative of a young cluster age (about 50 Myrs). From probability arguments, this result favors the scenario that such bursts are a recurrent phenomenon in late-type spiral nuclei.