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Two Populations of Young Massive Star Clusters in Arp 220

1 Pith paper cite this work, alongside 76 external citations. Polarity classification is still indexing.

1 Pith paper citing it
76 external citations · Pith
abstract

We present new optical observations of young massive star clusters in Arp 220, the nearest ultraluminous infrared galaxy, taken in UBVI with the Hubble Space Telescope ACS/HRC camera. We find a total of 206 probable clusters whose spatial distribution is centrally concentrated toward the nucleus of Arp 220. We use model star cluster tracks to determine ages, luminosities, and masses for 14 clusters with complete UBVI indices or previously published near-infrared data. We estimate rough masses for 24 additional clusters with I < 24 mag from BVI indices alone. The clusters with useful ages fall into two distinct groups: a ``young'' population (< 10 Myr) and an intermediate-age population (~300 Myr). There are many clusters with masses clearly above 10^6 Msun and possibly even above 10^7 Msun in the most extreme instances. These masses are high enough that the clusters being formed in the Arp 220 starburst can be considered as genuine young globular clusters. In addition, this study allows us to extend the observed correlation between global star formation rate and maximum cluster luminosity by more than an order of magnitude in star formation rate.

fields

astro-ph.GA 1

years

2026 1

verdicts

CONDITIONAL 1

representative citing papers

Too shy to spin? Cosmic wallflowers as proto-globular clusters

astro-ph.GA · 2026-06-25 · conditional · novelty 5.0

Star clusters forming in cosmic filaments at z≈7.6 are systematically slow rotators, and a gas-rich subset overlaps the kinematic and density locus of Milky Way globular clusters, making them plausible proto-globular clusters.

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  • Too shy to spin? Cosmic wallflowers as proto-globular clusters astro-ph.GA · 2026-06-25 · conditional · none · ref 246 · internal anchor

    Star clusters forming in cosmic filaments at z≈7.6 are systematically slow rotators, and a gas-rich subset overlaps the kinematic and density locus of Milky Way globular clusters, making them plausible proto-globular clusters.