2009/12/02 by Narae Hwang, Myung Gyoon Lee · 1 citation
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Camera for Surveys #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Chemistry #Cluster (spacecraft) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Globular cluster #Physics #Population #Star (game theory) #Star cluster #Star formation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA #myr
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/709/1/411
published as Astrophys.J.709:411-423,2010 · 12 pages, 12 figures in emulateapj format, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 2009/12/02 · openalex publication_date 2009/12/31 · arxiv updated 2014/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a study of the star cluster formation in M51 based on the image data taken with Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) of Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ). We have derived the star cluster formation rate using the ages and masses of about 2000 star clusters estimated by comparing photometric data ( F 336 W , F 435 W , F 555 W , and F 814 W ) with theoretical population synthesis models. The star cluster formation rate increased significantly during the period of 100–250 Myr ago. This period roughly coincides with the epoch of dynamical encounters of two galaxies, NGC 5194 and NGC 5195, expected by theoretical models. The age distribution of the star clusters also shows two peaks at about 100 Myr and 250 Myr ago. The star cluster mass ranges from 10 3 to 10 6 M ☉ and the mass function can be represented by a power law with an index ranging from α = −2.23 ± 0.34 for t < 10 Myr to α = −1.37 ± 0.11 for t >100 Myr. The mass function of star clusters older than 10 Myr also appears to display the steepest distribution with α ≈ −1.50 at around 200 Myr ago, near the expected epoch of the galaxy interaction. We also confirm the correlations of cluster size increasing with cluster mass (with a best-fit slope of 0.16 ± 0.02), and with cluster age (0.14 ± 0.03).