Program: GN-2016B-DD-3

Title:GMOS imaging of a just-discovered "globular cluster galaxy"
PI:Pieter van Dokkum
Co-I(s): Roberto Abraham, Aaron Romanowsky, Shany Danieli, Charlie Conroy, Jielai Zhang, Allison Merritt, Lamiya Mowla

Abstract

We discovered a nearby galaxy that seems to consist of only two components: a very diffuse light distribution and a large number of compact objects. These compact objects, tentatively identified as globular clusters, are extremely luminous: the six objects that we spectroscopically-confirmed with Keck have similar luminosities as the brightest globular clusters in the Local Group. We propose to obtain GMOS imaging of this remarkable galaxy, to complement the spectroscopy that we have. The immediate goal is to measure the globular cluster luminosity function, but as no other galaxy looks like this it is difficult to anticipate what we will find. We commit to publishing the data within weeks.

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