Program: GN-2008B-Q-14

Title:The halo-globular cluster connection in the elliptical galaxies NGC 7626 and NGC 7619
PI:Favio Raul Faifer
Co-I(s): Juan Carlos Forte, Lilia P. Bassino, Analia V. Smith Castelli, Sergio A. Cellone

Abstract

This proposal aims at obtaining deep photometric (g,r,i) images of the elliptical galaxies NGC 7626 and NGC 7619. These images will be used to characterize the brightness, colors and spatial distributions of the dominant globular cluster populations in these poorly studied systems. This analysis will enlarge our knowdlege about NGC 7626 and will be the first study of the NGC 7619 globular cluster system. These data will be used, on one side, within the context of our Monte Carlo based models that have been succesful in providing a strong link between the clusters and the features of the halos in other two galaxies (NGC 1399 and NGC 4486). On the other side, the observations will provide a clean database for further spectroscopic studies using GMOS, in a later phase of the project, in an attempt to analyze the kinematics of the system. The complex structure in the "recent" minor merger galaxy NGC 7626 is a well known difficulty of the proposal but, at the same time it is also a good motivation for exploring different data reduction pathways, and to face a challenge suited for an 8-meter class telescope.

Publications using this program's data