2008/08/25 by Conor Mancone, Ata Sarajedini
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/136/5/1913
4 pages, 6 figures Accepted to the Astronomical Journal
arxiv created 2008/08/25 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Using archival imaging from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the Hubble Space Telescope , we investigate the stellar populations of the Local Group dwarf spheroidal Andromeda V—a companion satellite galaxy of M31. The color–magnitude diagram extends from above the first ascent red giant branch (RGB) tip to approximately 1 mag below the horizontal branch (HB). The steep well-defined RGB is indicative of a metal-poor system while the HB is populated predominantly redward of the RR Lyrae instability strip. Utilizing Galactic globular cluster fiducial sequences as a reference, we calculate a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = −2.20 ± 0.15 and a distance of ( m − M ) 0 = 24.57 ± 0.04 after adopting a reddening of E ( B − V ) = 0.16. This metal abundance places And V squarely in the absolute magnitude–metallicity diagram for dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In addition, if we attribute the entire error-corrected color spread of the RGB stars to an abundance spread, we estimate a range of ∼0.5 dex in the metallicities of And V stars. Our analysis of the variable-star population of And V reveals the presence of 28 potential variables. Of these, at least 10 are almost certainly RR Lyrae stars based on their time sequence photometry.