Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userThe HST Large Programme on NGC 6752. I. Serendipitous discovery of a dwarf Galaxy in background
106
0
0.0
(
0
)
Authors
L. R. Bedin
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
As part of a large Hubble Space Telescope investigation aiming at reaching the faintest stars in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6752, an ACS/WFC field was the subject of deep optical observations reaching magnitudes as faint as V~30. In this field we report the discovery of Bedin I a dwarf spheroidal galaxy too faint and too close to the core of NGC 6752 for detection in earlier surveys. As it is of broad interest to complete the census of galaxies in the local Universe, in this Letter we provide the position of this new object along with preliminary assessments of its main param eters. Assuming the same reddening as for NGC 6752, we estimate a distance modulus of (m-M)_0 = 29.70+/-0.13 from the observed red giant branch, i.e., 8.7 (+0.5 -0.7) Mpc, and size of ~840x340pc, about 1/5 the size of the LMC. A comparison of the observed colour-magnitude diagram with synthetic counterparts that account for the galaxy distance modulus, reddening and photometric errors, suggests the presence of an old (~13Gyr) and metal poor ([Fe/H]~-1.3) population. This object is most likely a relatively isolated satellite dwarf spheroidal galaxy of the nearby great spiral NGC 6744, or potentially the most distant isolated dwarf spheroidal known with a secure distance.
rate research
Read More
We report on the white dwarf cooling sequence of the old globular cluster NGC 6752, which is chemically complex and hosts a blue horizontal branch. This is one of the last globular cluster white dwarf (WD) cooling sequences accessible to imaging by the Hubble Space Telescope. Our photometry and completeness tests show that we have reached the peak of the luminosity function of the WD cooling sequence, at a magnitude m_F606W=29.4+/-0.1, which is consistent with a formal age of ~14Gyr. This age is also consistent with the age from fits to the main-sequence turnoff (13-14Gyr), reinforcing our conclusion that we observe the expected accumulation of white dwarfs along the cooling sequence.
In this second installment of the series, we look at the internal kinematics of the multiple stellar populations of the globular cluster $omega$ Centauri in one of the parallel Hubble Space Telescope (HST) fields, located at about 3.5 half-light radii from the center of the cluster. Thanks to the over 15-year-long baseline and the exquisite astrometric precision of the HST cameras, well-measured stars in our proper-motion catalog have errors as low as $sim 10 mu$as yr$^{-1}$, and the catalog itself extends to near the hydrogen-burning limit of the cluster. We show that second-generation (2G) stars are significantly more radially anisotropic than first-generation (1G) stars. The latter are instead consistent with an isotropic velocity distribution. In addition, 1G have excess systemic rotation in the plane of the sky with respect to 2G stars. We show that the six populations below the main-sequence (MS) knee identified in our first paper are associated to the five main population groups recently isolated on the upper MS in the core of cluster. Furthermore, we find both 1G and 2G stars in the field to be far from being in energy equipartition, with $eta_{rm 1G}=-0.007pm0.026$ for the former, and $eta_{rm 2G}=0.074pm0.029$ for the latter, where $eta$ is defined so that the velocity dispersion $sigma_mu$ scales with stellar mass as $sigma_mu propto m^{-eta}$. The kinematical differences reported here can help constrain the formation mechanisms for the multiple stellar populations in $omega$ Centauri and other globular clusters. We make our astro-photometric catalog publicly available.
In this paper we report a new estimate of the absolute proper motion (PM) of the globular cluster NGC 5139 ($omega$ Cen) as part of the HST large program GO-14118+14662. We analyzed a field 17 arcmin South-West of the center of $omega$ Cen and computed PMs with an epoch span of $sim$15.1 years. We employed 45 background galaxies to link our relative PMs to an absolute reference-frame system. The absolute PM of the cluster in our field is: $(mu_alpha cosdelta , mu_delta) = (-3.341 pm 0.028 , -6.557 pm 0.043)$ mas yr$^{-1}$. Upon correction for the effects of viewing perspective and the known cluster rotation, this implies that for the cluster center of mass $(mu_alpha cosdelta , mu_delta) = (-3.238 pm 0.028, -6.716 pm 0.043)$ mas yr$^{-1}$. This measurement is direct and independent, has the highest random and systematic accuracy to date, and will provide an external verification for the upcoming Gaia Data Release 2. It also differs from most reported PMs for $omega$ Cen in the literature by more than 5$sigma$, but consistency checks compared to other recent catalogs yield excellent agreement. We computed the corresponding Galactocentric velocity, calculated the implied orbit of $omega$ Cen in two different Galactic potentials, and compared these orbits to the orbits implied by one of the PM measurements available in the literature. We find a larger (by about 500 pc) perigalactic distance for $omega$ Cen with our new PM measurement, suggesting a larger survival expectancy for the cluster in the Galaxy.
We report the discovery of a new dwarf galaxy (NGC6503-d1) during the Subaru extended ultraviolet (XUV) disk survey. It is a likely companion of the spiral galaxy NGC6503. The resolved images, in B, V, R, i, and Halpha, show an irregular appearance due to bright stars with underlying, smooth and unresolved stellar emission. It is classified as the transition type (dIrr/dSph). Its structural properties are similar to those of the dwarfs in the Local Group, with a V absolute magnitude ~ -10.5, half-light radius ~400 pc, and central surface brightness ~25.2. Despite the low stellar surface brightness environment, one HII region was detected, though its Halpha luminosity is low, indicating an absence of any appreciable O-stars at the current epoch. The presence of multiple stellar populations is indicated by the color-magnitude diagram of ~300 bright resolved stars and the total colors of the dwarf, with the majority of its total stellar mass ~4x10^6 Msun in an old stellar population.
We report the discovery of CXOU J191100-595621 and CXOU J191012-595619, two galaxy clusters serendipitously detected in the direction of globular cluster NGC 6752, based on archival {it Chandra} observations with a total exposure time of $sim 344$ ks. The deep {it Chandra} X-ray data enabled us to measure properties of both systems, which result in a redshift of $z=0.239pm0.013$ and $z=0.375pm0.016$, a temperature of $kT=3.32^{+0.57}_{-0.46}$ keV and $kT=3.71^{+1.18}_{-0.86}$ keV, an iron abundance of $Z_{rm Fe}=0.64^{+0.34}_{-0.29}Z_{rm Feodot}$ and $Z_{rm Fe}=1.29^{+0.97}_{-0.65}Z_{rm Feodot}$, and a rest-frame full band (0.5-7 keV) luminosity of $L_{rm X}=9.2^{+1.2}_{-1.1}times 10^{43} {rm , erg, s^{-1}}$ and $L_{rm X}=9.9^{+2.7}_{-2.2}times 10^{43} {rm , erg, s^{-1}}$ for CXOU J191100-595621 and CXOU J191012-595619, respectively. The temperature profile of CXOU J191100-595621 is found to decreases with decreasing radius, indicating a cool core in this cluster. The hydrostatic equilibrium estimation suggests the clusters are moderately weighted, with $M_{500}=(1.3pm0.4)times 10^{14}, M_{odot}$ and $M_{500}=(2.0pm1.5)times 10^{14}, M_{odot}$, respectively. We search for optical and radio counterparts of X-ray point sources in the clusters. Three active galactic nuclei are found, among which one is identified with a narrow-angle-tail radio galaxy, and one is found to associated with the brightest central galaxy (BCG) of CXOU J191100-595621.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
