Detection of massive tidal tails around the globular cluster Pal 5 with SDSS commissioning data
Abstract
We report the discovery of two well-defined tidal tails emerging from the sparse remote globular cluster Palomar 5. These tails stretch out symmetrically to both sides of the cluster in the direction of constant Galactic latitude and subtend an angle of 2.6 degrees on the sky. The tails have been detected in commissioning data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), providing deep five-color photometry in a 2.5 degrees wide band along the equator. The stars in the tails make up a substantial part (~1/3) of the current total population of cluster stars in the magnitude interval 19.5 < i* < 22.0. This reveals that the cluster is subject to heavy mass loss. The orientation of the tails provides an important key for the determination of the cluster's Galactic orbit.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0012311,
title = {Detection of massive tidal tails around the globular cluster Pal 5 with SDSS commissioning data},
author = {M. Odenkirchen and E. K. Grebel and C. M. Rockosi and W. Dehnen and R. Ibata and H. -W. Rix and A. Stolte and C. Wolf and J. E. Anderson and N. A. Bahcall and J. Brinkmann and I. Csabai and G. Hennessy and R. B. Hindsley and Z. Ivezic and R. H. Lupton and J. A. Munn and J. R. Pier and C. Stoughton and D. G. York},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0012311},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
7 pages, 3 postscript figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters