A genuine Large Magellanic Cloud age gap star cluster
arXiv:2201.09926 · doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slac010
Abstract
We confirm the existence of a second Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) star cluster, KMHK 1592, with an age that falls in the middle of the so-called LMC star cluster age gap, a long period of time (~ 4 - 11 Gyr) where no star cluster had been uncovered, except ESO121-SC03. The age (8.0+-0.5 Gyr) and the metallicity ([Fe/H]=-1.0+-0.2 dex) of KMHK1592 were derived from the fit of theoretical isochrones to the intrinsic star cluster colour-magnitude diagram sequences, which were unveiled using a robust star-by-star membership probability procedure. Because of the relative low brightness of the star cluster, deep GEMINI GMOS images were used. We discuss the pros and cons of three glimpsed scenarios that could explain the presence of both LMC age gap star clusters in the outskirts of the LMC, namely: in-situ star cluster formation, capture from the Small Magellanic Cloud, or accretion of a small dwarf galaxy.
5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters
References in corpus (15)
- Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
- New Optical Reddening Maps of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
- The VMC survey -- XLIII. The spatially resolved star formation history across the Large Magellanic Cloud
- The VISCACHA survey - I. Overview and First Results
- METAL: The Metal Evolution, Transport, and Abundance in the Large Magellanic Cloud Hubble program. II. Variations of interstellar depletions and dust-to-gas ratio within the LMC
- STEP: The VST survey of the SMC and the Magellanic Bridge. I. Overview and first results
- Chemical Signature of a Major Merger in the Early Formation of Small Magellanic Cloud
- The Large Magellanic Cloud stellar content with SMASH: I. Assessing the stability of the Magellanic spiral arms
- A SkyMapper view of the Large Magellanic Cloud: The dynamics of stellar populations
- The VMC Survey - XII. Star cluster candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud
- Gemini/GMOS photometry of intermediate-age star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
- Population Effects on the Metallicity Distribution Function Derived From the Red Giant Branch
- Astrophysical properties of newly discovered Magellanic Cloud star clusters
- Revisiting newly Large Magellanic Cloud age gap star clusters
- Star cluster formation from giant molecular clouds in the Small Magellanic Cloud about 2 Gyr ago: their origin, structures, and kinematics