| Abstract [eng] |
Star clusters are composed of stars with similar age and chemical composition. This makes them a powerful tool for studying star formation histories of galaxies. We studied star clusters in two types of galaxies. So far, only one cluster has been known in the irregular dwarf galaxy Leo A, and we have discovered four more low-mass young clusters. In the Andromeda galaxy, cluster aperture photometry is strongly affected by the large number of bright field stars. To reduce their influence, we have developed a new method of adaptive aperture photometry. Using it, we performed aperture photometry of 1181 clusters on CCD mosaics taken from the Hubble Space Telescope archive and demonstrated that our results are more consistent with theoretical models than previously published data. We also modeled the collapse of molecular clouds at different ambient pressures and showed that in high-pressure environments, the efficiency of star formation is higher and newly formed clusters are more strongly bound by gravity. |
