Astrophysical properties of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds homogeneously estimated by ASteCA
Perren, G. I.; Vázquez, R. A.; Piatti, A. E.
Argentina
Abstract
Aims: We seek to produce a homogeneous catalog of astrophysical parameters of 239 resolved star clusters, located in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, observed in the Washington photometric system.
Methods: The cluster sample was processed with the recently introduced Automated Stellar Cluster Analysis (ASteCA) package, which ensures both an automatized and a fully reproducible treatment, together with a statistically based analysis of their fundamental parameters and associated uncertainties. The fundamental parameters determined for each cluster with this tool, via a color-magnitude diagram (CMD) analysis, are metallicity, age, reddening, distance modulus, and total mass.
Results: We generated a homogeneous catalog of structural and fundamental parameters for the studied cluster sample and performed a detailed internal error analysis along with a thorough comparison with values taken from 26 published articles. We studied the distribution of cluster fundamental parameters in both Clouds and obtained their age-metallicity relationships.
Conclusions: The ASteCA package can be applied to an unsupervised determination of fundamental cluster parameters, which is a task of increasing relevance as more data becomes available through upcoming surveys.