SIMBAD references

2015ApJ...799...73K - Astrophys. J., 799, 73 (2015/January-3)

A hero's little horse: discovery of a dissolving star cluster in Pegasus.

KIM D. and JERJEN H.

Abstract (from CDS):

We report the discovery of an ultra-faint stellar system in the constellation of Pegasus. This concentration of stars was detected by applying our overdensity detection algorithm to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10 and confirmed with deeper photometry from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at the 4 m Blanco telescope. The best-fitting model isochrone indicates that this stellar system, Kim 1, features an old (12 Gyr) and metal-poor ([Fe/H] ∼ -1.7) stellar population at a heliocentric distance of 19.8±0.9 kpc. We measure a half-light radius of 6.9±0.6 pc using a Plummer profile. The small physical size and the extremely low luminosity are comparable to the faintest known star clusters Segue 3, Koposov 1 and 2, and Muñoz 1. However, Kim 1 exhibits a lower star concentration and is lacking a well-defined center. It also has an unusually high ellipticity and irregular outer isophotes, which suggests that we are seeing an intermediate mass star cluster being stripped by the Galactic tidal field. An extended search for evidence of an associated stellar stream within the 3 deg2 DECam field remains inconclusive. The finding of Kim 1 is consistent with current overdensity detection limits and supports the hypothesis that there are still a substantial number of extreme low-luminosity star clusters undetected in the wider Milky Way halo.

Abstract Copyright:

Journal keyword(s): galaxies: dwarf - globular clusters: general - Local Group

Nomenclature: NAME Kim 1 N=1.

Simbad objects: 13

goto Full paper

goto View the references in ADS

To bookmark this query, right click on this link: simbad:2015ApJ...799...73K and select 'bookmark this link' or equivalent in the popup menu