Projeto Observacional para 2007B - SO2007B-013

Autor: Leandro Kerber
Instituição: UFRGS
e-mail: kerber@astro.iag.usp.br

Co-autores:
Basílio X. Santiago
Beatriz Barbuy
Bruno Dias

Título: 4 candidates for dissolving stellar clusters in the LMC "age gap"

Resumo: The rich cluster system in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) shows a clear age gap in the range 3-10 Gyrs, with just one known exception (ESO121-SC03). However, an important question would be: are there dissolving stellar clusters in the LMC with ages in this so-called age gap? We propose to address this question by taking SOI images of 4 poorly populated (N < 1000 stars) LMC clusters previously identified, based on integrated colors, as clusters with ages between 3 and 10 Gyrs. Images in BVI filtres will be obtained to build colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams for these objects, reaching V~24.5, around 2 magnitudes below the oldest expected turn-off point. The confirmation of any of these clusters as an age gap cluster would provide new and important constraints for the chemical enrichment and dynamical evolution of the LMC.