Open AccessNew candidate intermediate‐age star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Author(s) -
Piatti Andrés E.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society: letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.067
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1745-3933
pISSN - 1745-3925
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2011.01105.x
Subject(s) - metallicity , astrophysics , photometry (optics) , small magellanic cloud , cluster (spacecraft) , physics , star cluster , large magellanic cloud , open cluster , population , star formation , metal , astronomy , stars , chemistry , demography , computer science , organic chemistry , sociology , programming language
We present the results on the age and metallicity estimates of nine Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) clusters (AM 3, HW 31, 40, 41, 42, 59, 63, L91 and NGC 339) obtained from CCD Washington CT 1 T 2 photometry. We confirm AM 3 and NGC 339 as intermediate‐age and metal‐poor clusters, and report for the first time that the remaining seven clusters are also intermediate‐age or old clusters ( t ∼ 4.3–9.3 Gyr), which represents an increase of ≳60 per cent of the total known intermediate‐age/old cluster population in the SMC. The studied clusters have metal contents ranging from intermediate metal‐poor ([Fe/H] ≈−0.7 dex) down to metal‐poor ([Fe/H] ≈−1.3 dex) values.