J/ApJ/527/199    HST observations of old clusters in the LMC (Johnson+, 1999)

Hubble space telescope observations of the oldest star clusters in the large Magellanic cloud. Johnson J.A., Bolte M., Stetson P.B., Hesser J.E., Somerville R.S. <Astrophys. J. 527, 199 (1999)> =1999ApJ...527..199J 1999ApJ...527..199J
ADC_Keywords: Clusters, globular ; HR diagrams ; Magellanic Clouds ; Photometry Mission_Name: HST Keywords: blue stragglers - globular clusters: individual (NGC 1466, i NGC 2257, Hodge 11) - Magellanic Clouds Abstract: We present V, V-I color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for three old star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC): NGC 1466, NGC 2257, and Hodge 11. Our data extend ∼3 mag below the main-sequence turnoff, allowing us to determine accurate relative ages and the blue straggler frequencies. Based on a differential comparison of the CMDs, any age difference between the three LMC clusters is less than 1.5 Gyr. Comparing their CMDs to those of M92 and M3, the LMC clusters, unless their published metallicities are significantly in error, are the same age as the old Galactic globulars. The similar ages to Galactic globulars are shown to be consistent with hierarchical clustering models of galaxy formation. The blue straggler frequencies are also similar to those of Galactic globular clusters. We derive a true distance modulus to the LMC of (m - M)0 = 18.46 ± 0.09 [assuming (m - M)0 = 14.61 for M92] using these three LMC clusters. Objects: ------------------------------------------------------ RA (2000) DE Designation(s) ------------------------------------------------------ 03 44 33 -71 40.3 NGC 1466 = ESO 54- 16 06 30 12 -64 19.6 NGC 2257 = ESO 87- 24 06 14 23 -69 50.8 Hodge 11 = Shapley-Lindsay 868 ------------------------------------------------------ File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file table2a.dat 49 17196 V and I photometry of NGC 1466 table2b.dat 49 15303 V and I photometry of NGC 2257 table2c.dat 49 17741 V and I photometry of Hodge 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: J/MNRAS/300/665 : HST VI Photometry of Six LMC Old Globular Clusters (Olsen+ 1998) Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2*.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 6 F6.2 pix Xpos X pixel position on Chip 9- 14 F6.2 pix Ypos Y pixel position on Chip 17- 22 F6.3 mag Vmag V band magnitude 25- 29 F5.3 mag e_Vmag Uncertainty in Vmag 33- 38 F6.3 mag V-I (V-I) color 41- 45 F5.3 mag e_V-I Uncertainty in V-I 49 I1 --- Chip Chip number (1 is the PC chip) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: From ApJ electronic edition
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS] 06-Mar-2000
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