2001/02/07 by M. Rejkuba, Marina Rejkuba · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Globular cluster #Horizontal branch #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Metallicity #Milky Way #Photometry (optics) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20010180
14 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in A&A
arxiv created 2001/02/07 · openalex publication_date 2001/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
At the distance of NGC 5128 ( Mpc) it is possible to resolve globular clusters with high resolution imaging from the ground, thus allowing the globular cluster candidate selection primarily through their morphological properties. I report the discovery of 71 globular clusters in NGC 5128 on VLT UT1+FORS1 images, including the faintest members () known to date in this galaxy as well as in 5 previously-known clusters. U- and V-band photometry has been measured for all the candidates and the luminosity function, spanning and , constructed. These are the deepest globular cluster luminosity functions in an elliptical galaxy determined so far. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics show that the difference between the globular cluster luminosity functions of NGC 5128 and the MW is not larger than the difference between the ones of M 31 and the MW. The ()0 color histogram shows a bimodal distribution. For 23 globular clusters I obtained K-band images with SOFI at the NTT in La Silla. Their positions in the () vs. () color-color diagram indicate that they are indeed old globular clusters. Assuming that the globular clusters in NGC 5128 span a similar age range as the ones in the Milky Way and adopting a linear fit between the metallicity and ()0 color, the metal-rich clusters peak at dex and the metal-poor ones peak at dex.