Related papers: The star clusters of the Magellanic System
Globular clusters are large and dense agglomerate of stars. At variance with smaller clusters of stars, they exhibit signs of some chemical evolution. At least for this reason, they are intermediate between open clusters and massive objects…
We report results on the internal dynamical evolution of old star clusters located in the outer regions of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Because the SMC has been imprinted with evidence of tidal interaction with the Large Magellanic…
We supplement current evolutionary computations concerning Magellanic Cloud stars by exploring the evolutionary behavior of canonical stellar models (i.e.,with inefficient core overshooting) with metallicities suitable for stars in the…
Globular clusters (GCs) are thought to be ancient relics from the early formative phase of galaxies, although their physical origin remains uncertain. GCs are most numerous around massive elliptical galaxies, where they can exhibit a broad…
In the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), there have been very few clusters observed with ages between 4 and 11 Gyr. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the `LMC age gap'. We constructed a model of the cluster age distribution aimed at…
Observations suggest that star formation occurs in only one or two crossing times for a range of scales spanning a factor of 1000. These observations include (1) measurements of embedded cluster ages in comparison with the cloud core…
Star clusters form in dense, hierarchically collapsing gas clouds. Bulk kinetic energy is transformed to turbulence with stars forming from cores fed by filaments. In the most compact regions, stellar feedback is least effective in removing…
We study the evolution of embedded clusters. The equations of motion of the stars in the cluster are solved by direct N-body integration while taking the effects of stellar evolution and the hydrodynamics of the natal gas content into…
Observations show that galaxies follow a mass-metallicity relation over a wide range of masses. One currently favoured explanation is that less massive galaxies are less able to retain the gas and stellar ejecta and thus may lose the…
We present colour-magnitude diagrams for two rich (~10^4 Msun) Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters with ages ~10^7 years, constructed from optical and near-infrared data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. These data are part of an…
We investigate the triggering of star formation and the formation of stellar clusters in molecular clouds that form as the ISM passes through spiral shocks. The spiral shock compresses gas into $\sim$100 pc long main star formation ridge,…
Star clusters - open and globulars - experience dynamical evolution on time scales shorter than their age. Consequently, open and globular clusters provide us with unique dynamical laboratories for learning about two-body relaxation, mass…
Young stars form on a wide range of scales, producing aggregates and clusters with various degrees of gravitational self-binding. The loose aggregates have a hierarchical structure in both space and time that resembles interstellar…
We present an analysis of the spatial distribution of various stellar populations within the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. We use optically selected stellar samples with mean ages between ~9 and ~1000 Myr, and existing stellar cluster…
Recent studies have shown that an extended main-sequence turn-off is a common feature among intermediate-age clusters (1--3 Gyr) in the Magellanic Clouds. Multiple-generation star formation and stellar rotation or interacting binaries have…
The ensemble of all star clusters in a galaxy constitutes its star cluster system. In this review, the focus of the discussion is on the ability of star clusters, particularly the systems of old massive globular clusters (GCSs), to mark the…
Most stars are born in the crowded environments of gradually forming star clusters. Dynamical interactions between close-passing stars and the evolving UV radiation fields from proximate massive stars are expected to sculpt the…
The majority of observed mass-to-light ratios of globular clusters are too low to be explained by `canonical' cluster models, in which dynamical effects are not accounted for. Moreover, these models do not reproduce a recently reported…
Recent progress in studies of globular clusters has shown that they are not simple stellar populations, being rather made of multiple generations. Evidence stems both from photometry and spectroscopy. A new paradigm is then arising for the…
The clustered nature of star formation should produce a high degree of structure in the combined phase and chemical space in the Galactic disk. To date, observed structure of this kind has been mostly limited to bound clusters and moving…