HST/ACS observations of NGC 346

The data set contains both short and long exposures for increased dynamic range, and photometry was performed using the ACS module of the stellar photometry package DOLPHOT. We detected almost 100,000 stars over a magnitude range of V~11 to V~28 mag, including all stellar types from the most massive young stars to faint lower main-sequence and pre-main-sequence stars.

We find that this region, which is characterized by a plethora of stellar systems and interesting objects, is an outstanding example of mixed stellar populations. We take into account different features of the color-magnitude diagram of all the detected stars to distinguish the two dominant stellar systems: the stellar association NGC 346 and the old spherical star cluster BS 90. These observations provide a complete stellar sample of a field about 5'x5' around the most active star-forming region in this galaxy.