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Description
We present new U, B, V, and I images of the prototypical merger remnant NGC 7252 obtained with the WFPC2 instrument of the Hubble Space Telescope. The photometry reaches about 3 mag deeper than the previous observations with WF/PCI and we detect 499 cluster candidates, most of them previously undiscovered. We can distinguish three populations of star clusters. We confirm the existence of a very luminous, blue population of clusters with a narrow range in color. Comparisons with Bruzual & Charlot (1996, in preparation) models incorporating a Salpeter stellar IMF show that the mean ages of these clusters are 650Myr for [Fe/H]=0.0 and 750 Myr if [Fe/H]=-0.3. Therefore, these are the clusters that formed during the merger event. The upper limit to the effective radii of these objects is 4.8+/-0.4pc (for D=64.4Mpc, H_0_=75), suggesting that they have physical properties like Galactic globular clusters. The second population of clusters is associated with the inner disk. Their (U-B) colors and reddening-free Q values indicate that their light is dominated by O stars and that they have ages less than 10Myr. However, with <R_eff_>=8.3+/-0.6pc, these objects may be more like stellar associations and they may not survive for a significant time. Finally, there is also evidence for the presence of the most luminous of the old, metal-poor globular clusters that belonged to the progenitor galaxies. The cluster luminosity function is a single power law with slope {alpha}~-1.8 down to a limiting magnitude of V=26. The current specific cluster frequency is S_N_=0.6+/-0.3 for old clusters and young clusters with M>10^5^M_{sun}_, but after the remnant has faded for about 15Gyr S_N_ will have increased to about 2.5. The central disk is now resolved into much finer detail than in earlier WF/PCI observations and the light profile of the nuclear region is consistent with a single power law with slope {gamma}=-1.26+/-0.03. After both the main body and the cluster system of NGC 7252 have aged, for several Gyr it may have the properties of a field elliptical.
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