Description
Star clusters are present in almost all types of galaxies. Here we investigate the star cluster population in the low-luminosity, unperturbed spiral galaxy NGC 45, which is located in the nearby Sculptor group. Both the old (globular) and young star-cluster populations are studied. Previous ground-based observations have suggested that NGC 45 has few if any "massive" young star clusters. We aim to study the population of lower-mass "open" star clusters and also identify old globular clusters that could not be distinguished from foreground stars in the ground-based data. Star clusters were identified using UBVI imaging from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. From broad band colors and comparison with simple stellar population (SSP) models assuming a fixed metallicity, we derived the age, mass, and extinction. We also measured the radius for each star cluster candidate.
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