Related papers: Young Massive Clusters in the Galactic Center
We present a near-infrared study of the candidate star cluster Mercer 81, located at the centre of the G338.4+0.1 HII region, and close to the TeV gamma-ray source HESS 1640-465. Using HST/NICMOS imaging and VLT/ISAAC spectroscopy we have…
Studies during the last decade have revealed that nearly all Globular Clusters (GCs) host multiple populations (MPs) of stars with a distinctive chemical patterns in light elements. No evidence of such MPs has been found so far in…
We show that one can obtain a good fit to the measured main sequence mass function (MF) of a large sample of Galactic clusters (young and old) with a tapered Salpeter power law distribution function with an exponential truncation. The…
We report on the identification of 54 embedded clusters around 217 massive protostellar candidates of which 34 clusters are new detections. The embedded clusters are identified as stellar surface density enhancements in the 2 $\mu$m All Sky…
Massive stars define the upper limits of the star formation process, dominate the energetics of their local environs, and significantly affect the chemical evolution of galaxies. Their role in starburst galaxies and the early Universe is…
Arches and Quintuplet are two young, massive clusters projected near the Galactic Center. To date, studies focused on understanding their origin have been based on proper motions (PMs) derived in the clusters' reference frames and required…
This review summarises the main properties of Young Massive Clusters (YMCs), including their population properties, particularly focusing on extragalactic cluster samples. We discuss potential biases and caveats that can affect the…
Recent high-resolution observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reveal that star clusters of extraordinary luminosity and compactness are commonly found in a variety of starburst systems. There has been much speculation that these…
The Quintuplet and Arches clusters, which were formed in the harsh environment of the Galactic Center (GC) a few million years ago, have been excellent targets for studying the effects of a star-forming environment on the initial mass…
We present a model to explain the mass segregation and shallow mass functions observed in the central parts of dense and young starburst stellar clusters. The model assumes that the initial pre-stellar cores mass function resulting from the…
We present evidence that some of the compact, luminous, young star clusters recently discovered through images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have masses comparable to those of old Galactic globular clusters. The "super star…
The discovery around the turn of the millenium of a population of very massive (M$_\star$ > 2$\times$10$^6$ M$_\odot$) compact stellar systems (CSS) with physical properties (radius, velocity dispersion, stellar mass etc.) that are…
The Arches cluster is an extraordinarily compact massive star cluster with a core radius of about 10$''$ ($\sim$0.4 pc) and consisting of more than 150 O star candidates with initial stellar masses greater than 20~M$_\odot$ near G0.12-0.02.…
We test claims that the power-law mass functions of young star clusters (ages $\lesssim\mbox{few}\times10^8$~yr) have physical upper cutoffs at $M_*\sim10^5~M_{\odot}$. Specifically, we perform maximum-likelihood fits of the Schechter…
We review the formation and early evolution of the most massive and dense young stellar clusters, focusing on the role they can play in our understanding of star and planet formation as a whole. Young massive cluster (YMC) progenitor clouds…
The massive Arches cluster near the Galactic center should be an ideal laboratory for investigating massive star formation under extreme conditions. But it comes at a high price: the cluster is hidden behind several tens of magnitudes of…
We aim to characterise the properties of a third massive, red supergiant dominated galactic cluster. To accomplish this we utilised a combination of near/mid-IR photometry and spectroscopy to identify and classify the properties of cluster…
Young, massive star clusters are the most notable and significant end products of violent star-forming episodes triggered by galaxy collisions, mergers, and close encounters. The question remains, however, whether or not at least a fraction…
We study the populations of stellar clumps in three high-redshift galaxies, at z=4.92, 4.88 and 4.03, gravitationally lensed by the foreground galaxy clusters MS1358, RCS0224 and MACS0940, respectively. The lensed galaxies consist of…
We analyze the three-dimensional shapes and kinematics of the young star cluster population forming in a high-resolution GRIFFIN project simulation of a metal-poor dwarf galaxy starburst. The star clusters, which follow a power-law mass…