The evolution of star clusters: the resolved-star approach

Abstract

We present the first results of a new technique to detect, locate, and characterize young dissolving star clusters. Using Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys archival images of the nearby galaxy IC2574, we performed stellar PSF photometry and selected the most massive stars as our first test sample. We used a group-finding algorithm on the selected massive stars to find cluster candidates. We then plot the color-magnitude diagrams for each group, and use stellar evolutionary models to estimate their age. So far, we found 79 groups with ages of up to about 100 Myr, displaying various sizes and densities.