Young stellar structures in NGC 6503 Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Gouliermis D.A.
  2. Thilker D.
  3. Elmegreen B.G.
  4. Elmegreen D.M.
  5. Calzetti D.,Lee J.C.
  6. Adamo A.
  7. Aloisi A.
  8. Cignoni M.
  9. Cook D.O.
  10. Dale D.A.,Gallagher J.S.III
  11. Grasha K.
  12. Grebel E.K.
  13. Davo A.H.
  14. Hunter D.A.,Johnson K.E.
  15. Kim H.
  16. Nair P.
  17. Nota A.
  18. Pellerin A.
  19. Ryon J.
  20. Sabbi E.,Sacchi E.
  21. Smith L.J.
  22. Tosi M.
  23. Ubeda L.
  24. Whitmore B.
  25. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We present a detailed clustering analysis of the young stellar population across the star-forming ring galaxy NGC 6503, based on the deep Hubble Space Telescope photometry obtained with the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey. We apply a contour-based map analysis technique and identify in the stellar surface density map 244 distinct star-forming structures at various levels of significance. These stellar complexes are found to be organized in a hierarchical fashion with 95 percent being members of three dominant super-structures located along the star-forming ring. The size distribution of the identified structures and the correlation between their radii and numbers of stellar members show power-law behaviours, as expected from scale-free processes. The self-similar distribution of young stars is further quantified from their autocorrelation function, with a fractal dimension of ~1.7 for length-scales between ~20pc and 2.5kpc. The young stellar radial distribution sets the extent of the star-forming ring at radial distances between 1 and 2.5kpc. About 60 percent of the young stars belong to the detected stellar structures, while the remaining stars are distributed among the complexes, still inside the ring of the galaxy. The analysis of the time-dependent clustering of young populations shows a significant change from a more clustered to a more distributed behaviour in a time-scale of ~60Myr. The observed hierarchy in stellar clustering is consistent with star formation being regulated by turbulence across the ring. The rotational velocity difference between the edges of the ring suggests shear as the driving mechanism for this process. Our findings reveal the interesting case of an inner ring forming stars in a hierarchical fashion.

Keywords
  1. galaxies
  2. stellar-associations
  3. galaxy-classification-systems
  4. hst-photometry
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2015MNRAS.452.3508G
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/452/3508
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/452/3508

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/452/3508
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/452/3508
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/452/3508
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/452/3508/table2?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/452/3508/table2?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/452/3508/table2?

History

2016-04-27T06:57:15Z
Resource record created
2016-04-27T06:57:15Z
Created
2017-01-11T13:48:49Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr