THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF WHITE DWARFS IN 47 Tucanae: THE DISTANCE TO THE CLUSTER

2011/12/06 by Kristin A. Woodley, K. A. Woodley, R. Goldsbury +26 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Camera for Surveys #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Distance modulus #Globular cluster #Hubble space telescope #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Star cluster #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #White dwarf #Wide Field Camera 3 #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/143/2/50

Accepted to The Astronomical Journal, 13 Figures, 2 Tables. Figures 3 and 6 are figure sets, each composed of 59 subfigures (to appear in the electronic journal). This is a Companion paper to the article ID: submit/0375614

arxiv created 2011/12/06 · openalex publication_date 2012/01/13 · arxiv updated 2015/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We present a new distance determination to the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae by fitting the spectral energy distributions of its white dwarfs (WDs) to pure hydrogen atmosphere WD models. Our photometric data set is obtained from a 121-orbit Hubble Space Telescope program using the Wide Field Camera 3 UVIS/IR channels, capturing F390W, F606W, F110W, and F160W images. These images cover more than 60 arcmin 2 and extend over a radial range of 5–13.7 arcmin (6.5–17.9 pc) within the globular cluster. Using a likelihood analysis, we obtain a best-fitting unreddened distance modulus of ( m − M ) o = 13.36 ± 0.02 ± 0.06 corresponding to a distance of 4.69 ± 0.04 ± 0.13 kpc, where the first error is random and the second is systematic. We also search the WD photometry for infrared excess in the F160W filter, indicative of low-mass companions, and find no convincing cases within our sample.

Citations

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Cited by

• OPTICAL IDENTIFICATION OF He WHITE DWARFS ORBITING FOUR MILLISECOND PULSARS IN THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER 47 TUCANAE
• A catalogue of masses, structural parameters, and velocity dispersion profiles of 112 Milky Way globular clusters
• Deep HST Imaging in 47 Tucanae: A Global Dynamical Model
• A Multimass Velocity Dispersion Model of 47 Tucanae Indicates No Evidence for an Intermediate-mass Black Hole