2021/02/24 by Christopher Usher, Sebastian Kamann, Mark Gieles +8 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Classical mechanics #Field of view #Geometry #Globular cluster #Integral field spectrograph #Kinematics #Offset (computer science) #Optics #Physics #Rotation (mathematics) #Spectral line #Spectrograph #Stars #Stellar kinematics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Telescope #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stab565
8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
arxiv created 2021/02/24 · openalex publication_date 2021/02/25 · arxiv updated 2021/03/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
ABSTRACT We present observations of the stellar kinematics of the centre of the core collapsed globular cluster M15 obtained with the MUSE integral field spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope operating in narrow field mode. Thanks to the use of adaptive optics, we obtain a spatial resolution of 0.1 arcsec and are able to reliably measure the radial velocities of 864 stars within 8 arcsec of the centre of M15, thus providing the largest sample of radial velocities ever obtained for the innermost regions of this system. Combined with previous observations of M15 using MUSE in wide field mode and literature data, we find that the central kinematics of M15 are complex with the rotation axis of the core of M15 offset from the rotation axis of the bulk of the cluster. While this complexity has been suggested by previous work, we confirm it at higher significance and in more detail.