We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
NGC1818 unveils the origin of the extended main-sequence turn-off in young Magellanic Clouds clusters.
- Authors
Cordoni, Giacomo; Milone, Antonino P.; Marino, Anna F.; Cignoni, Michele; Lagioia, Edoardo P.; Tailo, Marco; Carlos, Marília; Dondoglio, Emanuele; Jang, Sohee; Mohandasan, Anjana; Legnardi, Maria V.
- Abstract
The origin of young star clusters represents a major challenge for modern stellar astrophysics. While stellar rotation partially explains the colour spread observed along main-sequence turn-offs, i.e. where stars leave the main-sequence after the exhaustion of hydrogen in their core, and the multiple main sequences in the colour-magnitude diagrams of stellar systems younger than approximately 2 Gyr, it appears that an age difference may still be required to fulfill the observational constraints. Here we introduce an alternative approach that exploits the main-sequence turn-on, i.e. the point alongside the colour-magnitude diagram where pre-main-sequence stars join the main-sequence, to disentangle between the effects of stellar rotation and age to assess the presence, or lack thereof, of prolonged star formation in the approximately 40-Myr-old cluster NGC1818. Our results provide evidence for a fast star formation, confined within 8 Myr, thus excluding age differences as responsible for the extended main-sequence turn-offs, and leading the way to alternative observational perspectives in the exploration of stellar populations in young clusters. The nature of young star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds is debated. Here, the authors show an alternative approach that exploits data to exclude the presence of age differences greater than a few million years among cluster stars in a very young cluster.
- Subjects
MAGELLANIC clouds; STELLAR rotation; AGE differences; STELLAR populations; MAIN sequence (Astronomy); STAR clusters; AGE of stars
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2022, Vol 13, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-022-31977-y