UMi dwarf galaxy BV photometry Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Olszewski E.W.
  2. Aaronson M.
  3. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We have constructed a color-magnitude diagram of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal to m_V_=24.8mag from charged-coupled device (CCD) observations with the Kitt Peak 4 m telescope. The main-sequence turnoff is easily visible. Fits to evolutionary isochrones and the globular M92 indicate that Ursa Minor has an age and metal abundance very similar to that of the latter cluster. No evidence for stars younger than about 16 billion years is seen, with the possible exception of approximately 20 stars believed to be blue stragglers. Ursa Minor is therefore an extreme-age galaxy, unlike superficially similar objects such as the Carina dwarf. Indeed, Ursa Minor may be the only outer-halo spheroidal whose stellar content lives up to the classical ideals of a Population II system. A distance modulus of (m-M)_0_=19.0mag is derived from a sliding fit to the M92 ridge lines. However, this modulus is uncertain by ~0.1mag, for the horizontal branch in our color-magnitude diagram is poorly populated. The ratio of blue stragglers to anomalous Cepheids in Ursa Minor is estimated to be ~100, a number that may provide an important constraint on binary models for the origin of these stars. A surprising result of our study is the discovery of clumpiness in the distribution of stars. This finding may give more weight to the idea that dwarf spheroidal galaxies were previously dwarf irregular galaxies, although clearly, if so, Ursa Minor must have lost its gaseous content very soon after formation.

Keywords
  1. galaxies
  2. photometry
  3. ccd-photometry
  4. visible-astronomy
  5. Wide-band photometry
Bibliographic source Bibcode
1985AJ.....90.2221O
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/90/2221
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/90/2221
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.50902221

Access

Web browser access HTML
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/90/2221
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/90/2221
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/90/2221
IVOA Table Access TAP
https://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).

History

2000-11-19T09:42:43Z
Resource record created
2000-11-19T08:42:50Z
Updated
2000-11-19T09:42:43Z
Created

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr