Bibcode
Weidner, Carsten; Bonnell, Ian A.; Zinnecker, Hans
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 724, Issue 2, pp. 1503-1508 (2010).
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12
2010
Journal
Citations
40
Refereed citations
36
Description
Super star clusters (M ecl > 105 M
sun) are the largest stellar nurseries in our local Universe,
containing hundreds of thousands to millions of young stars within a few
light years. Many of these systems are found in external galaxies,
especially in pairs of interacting galaxies, and in some dwarf galaxies,
but relatively few in disk galaxies like our own Milky Way. We show that
a possible explanation for this difference is the presence of shear in
normal spiral galaxies which impedes the formation of the very large and
dense super star clusters but prefers the formation of loose OB
associations possibly with a less massive cluster at the center. In
contrast, in interacting galaxies and in dwarf galaxies, regions can
collapse without having a large-scale sense of rotation. This lack of
rotational support allows the giant clouds of gas and stars to
concentrate into a single, dense, and gravitationally bound system.