THE STAR CLUSTER SYSTEM OF THE MERGING GALAXY NGC 1487

We present a photometric study of the star cluster system in the merging galaxy NGC 1487, based on the BI photometry obtained from the F450W and F814W images in the HST /WFPC2 archive data. We have found about 560 star cluster candidates in NGC 1487, using the morphological parameters of the objects. We have investigated several photometric characteristics of the clusters: color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), color distribution, spatial distribution, age, size and luminosity function. The CMD of the bright clusters with 18.5 < B < 24 mag in NGC 1487 shows three major populations of clusters: a blue cluster population with $(B-I){\le}0.45$, an intermediate-color cluster population with $0.45<(B-I){\le}1.55$, and a red cluster population with (B - I) > 1.55. The intermediate-color population is the most dominant among the three populations. The brightest clusters in the blue and intermediate- color populations are as bright as $B{\approx}18mag$ ($M_B{\approx}-12mag$), which are three magnitudes brighter than those in the red population. The blue and intermediate-color clusters are strongly concentrated on the bright condensations, while the red clusters are relatively more scattered over the galaxy. The CMD of these clusters is found to be remarkably similar to that of the clusters in the famous interacting system M51. From this we suggest that the intermediate-color clusters were, probably, formed during the merging process which occurred about 500 Myrs ago.