Axial ratios and orientations for 100 Galactic globular star clusters

Details Axial ratios and orientations for 100 Galactic globular star clusters Axial ratios and orientations for 100 Galactic globular star clusters

Jun 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987apj...317..246w&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 317, June 1, 1987, p. 246-263. Research supported by the University of Kans

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

112

Galactic Structure, Globular Clusters, Star Clusters, Stellar Motions, Astronomical Photography, Elliptical Galaxies, Error Analysis, Sky Surveys (Astronomy)

Scientific paper

Axial ratios and major-axis orientations determined from image processing of Palomar and SRC Sky Survey material are tabulated for a sample of 100 Galactic globular clusters. From a subsample of 99 clusters, the mean axial ratio is found to be 0.93 + or - 0.01. Given that only 32 percent are flatter than b/a less than 0.9, and 5 percent flatter than 0.8, the clusters are found to be quite spherical. As predicted by King (1961 and 1966), tidal interactions by the Galaxy on the cluster are not the means by which the observed ellipticities are produced. Rather, Galactic absorption effects may have a moderate but not dominant effect on the clusters' observed ellipticities, as suggested by van den Bergh (1984). The alternate mechanisms of cluster rotation or anisotropic internal velocity distributions, or both, are considered to be more likely. The observed distribution of axial ratios is statistically indistinguishable from that of a similar-size sample of rotationally flattened clusters, which have axial-ratio values lying in the range of 0.75 less than b/a less than 0.83, and the major axes of which are oriented randomly in space.

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