Young Super Star Clusters in the Starburst of M82: The Catalog

Recent results from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have resolved starbursts ascollections of compact young stellar clusters. Here we present a photometriccatalogue of the young stellar clusters in the nuclear starburst of M82,observed with the HST WFPC2 in Halpha (F656N) and in four optical broad-bandfilters. We identify 197 young super stellar clusters. The compactness and highdensity of the sources led us to develop specific techniques to measure theirsizes. Strong extinction lanes divide the starburst into five different zonesand we provide a catalogue of young super star clusters for each of these. Inthe catalogue we include relative coordinates, radii, fluxes, luminosities,masses, equivalent widths, extinctions, and other parameters. Extinction valueshave been derived from the broad-band images. The radii range between 3 and 9pc, with a mean value of 5.7 +/- 1.4pc, and a stellar mass between 10e4 and10e6 Mo. The inferred masses and mean separation, comparable to the size ofsuper star clusters, together with their high volume density, provides strongevidence for the key ingredients postulated by Tenorio et al. (2003) asrequired for the development of a supergalactic wind.Comment: 45 pages, 5 figures, 12 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Added Erratu