A Photometric Catalog of 77 Newly-recognized Star Clusters in M31

TL;DR

This study presents a catalog of 77 new star clusters in M31 identified through HST imaging, highlighting their properties, distribution, and luminosity, especially focusing on the most luminous young clusters in active star-forming regions.

Contribution

The paper provides the first comprehensive catalog of newly identified star clusters in M31's active regions, with detailed photometric data and analysis of their luminosity distribution.

Findings

77 new star clusters identified in M31

Clusters show a range of colors and magnitudes, with a mean bluer than previous surveys

Presence of extremely luminous young clusters, including two notable examples

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an HST WFPC2 search for star clusters in active star-formation regions of M31. Nine of the clusters were previously cataloged and 77 are new. Our 23 fields cover key areas of the galaxy's recent star formation activity. We provide a catalog of positions and integrated magnitudes in four colors, taken with the 336W, 439W, 555W and 814W filters with the Hubble Space Telescope. A future paper will discuss the results of stellar photometry in some of the clusters in six colors, including two additional uv colors (Bianchi et al. 2010). The integrated magnitudes and colors of the clusters show a range of characteristics, but the mean color is bluer than for previous surveys, reflecting the concentration of our sample on active star forming regions. Absolute magnitudes range from M555 = -10.3 to - 3.5. The observed luminosity function shows a nearly Gaussian distribution with a peak value at M555 = -5.4 and a shoulder of unusually-bright clusters. We look in detail at two of these unusually bright examples, cluster 45 (C410) and cluster 10 (BH05). C410 lies at the core of a bright HII region. Its absolute magnitude is M555 = -10.3. BH05 is a similar object, with an absolute magnitude of M555 = -8.9. These two clusters are among the most luminous young clusters in M31.