2008/09/02 by Alessio Mucciarelli, Livia Origlia, Claudia Maraston +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/690/1/288
published as Astrophys.J.690:288-294,2009 · Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 2008/09/02 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present high-quality J , H , and K s photometry of four Small Magellanic Cloud stellar clusters with intermediate ages in the 1–7 Gyr range (namely NGC 339, 361, 416, and 419). We obtained deep color–magnitude diagrams to study the evolved sequences and provide a detailed census of the red giant branch (RGB), asymptotic giant branch (AGB), and carbon star populations in each cluster and their contribution to the total cluster light. We find that in the ∼5–7 Gyr old clusters AGB stars account for ∼6% of the total light in the K s band, carbon stars are lacking, and RGB stars account for ∼45% of the total bolometric luminosity. These empirical findings are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. Finally, we derived photometric metallicities computed by using the properties of the RGB and find an iron content of [Fe/H] = −1.18, −1.08, −0.99, and −0.96 dex for NGC 339, 361, 416, and 419, respectively.