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The Dynamical Mass of the Young Cluster W3 in NGC 7252: Heavy-Weight Globular Cluster or Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Claudia Maraston
Affiliation:
MPE, Giessenbachstraβe, 85748 Garching, GermanyUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstraβe 1, 81619 München, Germany
N. Bastian
Affiliation:
MPE, Giessenbachstraβe, 85748 Garching, GermanyUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstraβe 1, 81619 München, Germany
R. P. Saglia
Affiliation:
MPE, Giessenbachstraβe, 85748 Garching, GermanyUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstraβe 1, 81619 München, Germany
Markus Kissler-Patig
Affiliation:
MPE, Giessenbachstraβe, 85748 Garching, GermanyUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstraβe 1, 81619 München, Germany
François Schweizer
Affiliation:
MPE, Giessenbachstraβe, 85748 Garching, GermanyUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstraβe 1, 81619 München, Germany
Paul Goudfrooij
Affiliation:
MPE, Giessenbachstraβe, 85748 Garching, GermanyUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstraβe 1, 81619 München, Germany

Abstract

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We have measured the dynamical mass of the highly luminous star cluster W3 in the young merger remnant galaxy NGC 7252. The value is Mdyn = (8 ± 2) × 107M, and represents the highest dynamically-confirmed mass for an extra-galactic star cluster so far. The dynamical mass is in excellent agreement with the luminous mass (Maraston et al. 2001). This results from the use of stellar population models that include correctly the brightest AGB stellar phase, dominant in young stellar populations. To classify W3, we employ the fundamental plane of stellar systems (Bender, Burstein & Faber 1992), for the first time in these kinds of studies. We find that W3 lies far from typical Milky Way globular clusters, but it is also far from the heavyweights ωCen in the Milky Way and G1 in M31, because it is too extended for its mass, and from dwarf elliptical galaxies because it is much more compact for its mass. Instead W3 lies close to the ultra-compact Fornax objects (Drinkwater et al. 2003) and to the compact elliptical M32, possibly shedding light on the still mysterious nature of these objects. A previously deserted region of the fundamental plane starts to be populated.

Type
JD6: Extragalactic Globular Clusters & Their Host Galaxies
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Pacific 2005

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