Ages and Masses of Star Clusters in M33: a Multi-wavelength Study

TL;DR

This study combines multi-wavelength data from UV to IR to derive and compare ages, masses, and extinctions of 137 star clusters in M33, assessing the robustness of physical parameter estimates and improving existing models.

Contribution

It expands wavelength coverage and uses updated population synthesis models to refine cluster age and mass estimates, highlighting sensitivities and degeneracies in SED fitting.

Findings

Cluster ages differ significantly from previous estimates.

Mass estimates are relatively insensitive to fitting methods.

Old, low-extinction clusters are difficult to recover accurately.

Abstract

We combine archival images for the nearby galaxy M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR) to derive ages, masses, and extinctions for the young star cluster population, and compare our physical parameters with published ones. Our goal is to test the robustness of clusters' ages and masses, and possibly improve on existing ones both by expanding the wavelength range of the spectral energy distribution (SED) fits and by using more recent population synthesis models. The rationale for this experiment is to verify the sensitivity of the clusters' physical parameters to observational setups and model choices that span those commonly found in the literature. We derive the physical parameters of 137 clusters, using SEDs measured in eight UV-to-I bands, including H-alpha, from GALEX and ground-based images. We also add the 24 micron image from the Spitzer Space Telescope to help break some age degeneracies. We find that our derived cluster ages show significant differences with earlier determinations, while the masses remain relatively insensitive to the fitting approach adopted. We also highlight an already known difficulty in recovering old, low-extinction clusters, as SED fitting codes tend to prefer younger, higher extinction solutions when the extinction is a free parameter. We publish updated ages, masses, and extinctions, with uncertainties, for all sample star clusters, together with their photometry; given the proximity of M33, this represents an important population to secure for the study of star formation and cluster evolution in spirals.