# Characterizing the stellar population of NGC 1980

## TL;DR

This study analyzes the stellar population of NGC 1980 using low-resolution spectra, revealing its age is approximately 3 million years, similar to L1641, and clarifying its relation to the Orion Nebula Cluster.

## Contribution

It provides spectroscopic data and age estimation for NGC 1980, clarifying its age and relation to nearby regions, which was previously uncertain.

## Key findings

- NGC 1980 has an age of about 3 Myr.
- The age of NGC 1980 is similar to L1641.
- NGC 1980's population is not older than the Orion Nebula Cluster.

## Abstract

NGC 1980 is a young cluster that is located about 0.5 degrees south of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). Recent studies by Bouy et al. and Pillitteri et al. have suggested that NGC 1980 contains an older population of stars compared to a much younger ONC, and that it belongs to a foreground population that may be located in front of the Orion A molecular gas by as much as 40 pc. In this work we present low-resolution spectra towards 148 young stars found towards the NGC 1980 region. We determine the spectral types of these stars, examine accretion signatures and measure the extinction towards them. We determine that based on these observations, the age of the population of NGC 1980 is indistinguishable from L1641, estimated to be ~3 Myr, comparable with the study by Fang et al.