2003/09/08 by Mohammad Heydari, M. Heydari-Malayeri, F. Meynadier +6 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031360
published as Astron.Astrophys.411:427-436,2003 · 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&A
arxiv created 2003/09/08 · openalex publication_date 2003/11/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We present near infrared JHK imaging of the Small Magellanic Cloud compact region N81 using the ISAAC camera at the ESO Very Large Telescope (Antu). Our analysis of the stellar environment of this young massive star region reveals the presence of three new stellar populations in the surrounding field which are mainly composed of low mass stars. The main population is best fitted by evolutionary models for ~2 stars with an age of 1 Gyr. We argue that these populations are not physically associated with the region N81. Instead they are the result of a number of low mass star forming events through the depth of the SMC south of its Shapley's wing. The populations can rather easily be probed due to the low interstellar extinction in that direction.