Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Stellar Clusters In Ngc 1313: Evidence Of Infant Mortality, Anne Pellerin, Martin Meyer, Jason Harris, Daniela Calzetti

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We present evidence that infant mortality of stellar clusters is likely to be a major and very efficient process for the dissolution of young clusters in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. Performing stellar PSF photometry on archival HST/ACS images of the galaxy, we find that a large fraction of early B-type stars are seen outside of star clusters and well spread within the galactic disk, consistent with the scenario of infant mortality. We also calculate the UV flux produced by the stars in and out the clusters and find that 75 to 90% of the UV flux in NGC 1313 …