We investigate the massive star content of NGC 3603, the closest known giant H II region. We have obtained spectra of 26 stars in the central cluster using the Baade 6.5-m telescope (Magellan I). Of these 26 stars, 16 had no previous spectroscopy. We also obtained photometry of all of the stars with previous or new spectroscopy, primarily using archival HST ACS/HRC images. We use these data to derive an improved distance to the cluster, and to construct an H-R diagram for discussing the masses and ages of the massive star content of this cluster.
@article{arxiv.0712.2621,
title = {The Massive Star Content of NGC 3603},
author = {Nicholas W. Melena and Philip Massey and Nidia I. Morrell and Amanda M. Zangari},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.2621},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Accepted by the Astronomical Journal. This revision updates the coordinates in Table 1 by (-0.18sec, +0.2") to place them on the UCAC2 system