Compact Star Clusters in M81. I. Data from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 Imaging

Abstract

In this paper, we present the discovery of 114 compact star clusters in the nearby spiral galaxy M81 from B-, V-, and I-band Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 imaging in eight fields, covering a total area of ~40 arcmin². The fields sample a variety of environments (both spiral and interarm regions), as well as a range of projected galactocentric distances from 2 to 12 kpc. The sample is complete to V~22, deeper by ~1 mag than any previous cluster survey in M81. We present details of the separation of clusters from both stellar sources and background galaxies, which has been based solely on structural parameters and morphology and not using any color cuts, as is necessary for ground-based surveys. We present magnitudes and colors of detected clusters. Surface brightness profiles are compared with single-mass King models, giving a range of core radii for the clusters in our sample between 0.2 and 7 pc. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.