Bibcode
Milone, A. P.; Marino, A. F.; D'Antona, F.; Bedin, L. R.; Piotto, G.; Jerjen, H.; Anderson, J.; Dotter, A.; Criscienzo, M. Di; Lagioia, E. P.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 465, Issue 4, p.4363-4374
Advertised on:
3
2017
Citations
65
Refereed citations
57
Description
One of the most unexpected results in the field of stellar populations
of the last few years is the discovery that some Magellanic Cloud
globular clusters younger than ˜400 Myr exhibit bimodal main
sequences (MSs) in their colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). Moreover,
these young clusters host an extended main-sequence turn-off (eMSTO) in
close analogy with what is observed in most ˜1-2 Gyr old clusters
of both Magellanic Clouds. We use high-precision Hubble Space Telescope
photometry to study the young star cluster NGC 1866 in the Large
Magellanic Cloud. We discover an eMSTO and a split MS. The analysis of
the CMD reveals that (i) the blue MS is the less populous one, hosting
about one-third of the total number of MS stars; (ii) red MS stars are
more centrally concentrated than blue MS stars; (iii) the fraction of
blue MS stars with respect to the total number of MS stars drops by a
factor of ˜2 in the upper MS with mF814W ≲ 19.7.
The comparison between the observed CMDs and stellar models reveals that
the observations are consistent with ˜200 Myr old highly rotating
stars on the red MS, with rotation close to critical value, plus a
non-rotating stellar population spanning an age interval between
˜140 and 220 Myr, on the blue MS. Noticeable, neither stellar
populations with different ages only, nor coeval stellar models with
different rotation rates, properly reproduce the observed split MS and
eMSTO. We discuss these results in the context of the eMSTO and multiple
MS phenomenon.