Description
We present UBVRI and H{alpha} photometry of the extremely compact, starburst cluster NGC 3603. Ground-based images, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archival data, as well as Chandra X-ray data have been used for this study. We present, for the first time, optical color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for the stars in the cluster core down to V=22mag. A well-defined main sequence (MS) as well as low-mass pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars can clearly be seen in the CMDs. This result confirms the finding by Eisenhauer et al. (1998ApJ...498..278E) that low-mass stars are forming in the starburst cluster. We also derive an age (1+/-1Myr) and distance of the cluster (V_0_-M_V_=14.2+/-0.2mag, i.e., d=6.9+/-0.6kpc).
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