HST Observations of Young Stellar Clusters in Nearby Galaxies

The HST data archive contains images of several nearby spirals, suitable for detailed studies of the properties of individual star clusters and their surroundings. By combining structural information derived from HST images with ground-based photometry, it is possible to study cluster properties as a function of age and mass. While both the core- and effective radii of young clusters correlate with mass, the slopes of these relations are shallower than for a constant-density relation, implying that the mean density increases with cluster mass. This must be accounted for in theories for cluster formation.