Hot stars in young globular clusters of the Magellanic Clouds

The ratio R of early- to late-type luminous stars in young populous globular clusters in the Magellanic Clouds has been obtained via spectral classification. It was found that there are very young globular clusters (age 107 - 5 x 107 yr) with a high percentage of hot stars. This kind of stellar system is not observed in our Galaxy. The observed ratios R for the LMC clusters exhibit values larger than those found for the SMC, indicating that the hot stars in the SMC clusters are fewer. This has been attributed to the longer lifetimes of the late type supergiants because of lower heavy element abundances or lower mass loss rates. (author)