1998/09/28 by Sidney van den Bergh · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Educational Leadership and Practices #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/311681
To be published in ApJ Letters 1998 November 1
arxiv created 1998/09/28 · openalex publication_date 1998/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
A great burst of cluster formation increased the rate at which open clusters were formed in the Large Magellanic Cloud 3-5 Gyr ago by at least an order of magnitude. On the other hand, the rate of star formation ~4 Gyr appears to have increased by a factor of only 2-4. This shows that the rate of cluster formation is not a good tracer of the rate at which stars are formed. Normalized to the same rate of star formation, the Large Magellanic Cloud is presently forming ≳600 times more star clusters than the Local Group dwarf irregular IC 1613. The high rate of cluster formation in merging gas-rich galaxies suggests that strong shocks might favor the formation of clusters.