Mosaic Imaging of Globular Cluster Systems in the Outer Regions of Elliptical Galaxies

Details Mosaic Imaging of Globular Cluster Systems in the Outer Regions of Elliptical Galaxies Mosaic Imaging of Globular Cluster Systems in the Outer Regions of Elliptical Galaxies

Feb 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999noao.prop..296r&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #1999A-0296

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose to use the Mosaic camera to obtain wide-field images of nearby field and cluster ellipticals, in order to study their globular cluster populations at large radii. Current estimates of the total number, specific frequency, and color gradient of the globular cluster populations of elliptical galaxies rely on extrapolations from much smaller radii, or on twenty-year-old photographic data. With the Mosaic camera, we can more than double the radial coverage achieved by the best existing observations. Because the cluster population falls off slowly out to the limits of current data, a significant fraction of the total population may lie at large radii. Therefore, determining the number and color of globular clusters at these radii is critical for using clusters to address questions about the early formation and enrichment history of elliptical galaxies. In particular, we will test models for the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies by determining: whether there exists a large reservoir of globular clusters at large radii, as required by models in which stripping is important; whether the blue population of clusters is more spatially extended than the red clusters, as merger models predict; and finally, how the distribution and properties of globular cluster systems around ellipticals compare to those around spiral galaxies (using data obtained with WIYN and HST), to test whether simple merger scenarios can explain the origins of elliptical galaxies.

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