English

Globular Clusters in NGC 1275

Astrophysics 2009-10-28 v1

Abstract

We present the results of a deep photometric study of the outer halo of NGC 1275, the highly active cD galaxy at the center of the Perseus cluster. We find a modest excess of faint (R>22.5R > 22.5) starlike objects in its halo, indicating a population of old-halo globular clusters. However, the total estimated cluster population corresponds to a specific frequency of SN=4.4±1.2S_N = 4.4 \pm 1.2, no larger than that of normal giant ellipticals and three times lower than that of other central cD galaxies such as M87. We discuss several ideas for the origin of this galaxy. Our results reinforce the view that high SNS_N (ie: highly efficient globular cluster formation) is not associated with cooling flows, or with recent starburst or merger phenomena.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9605027,
  title  = {Globular Clusters in NGC 1275},
  author = {Denise Kaisler and William E. Harris and Dennis R. Crabtree and Harvey B. Richer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9605027},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

25 pages, latex, postscript figures, tarred, Unix compressed, postscript version of paper and figures available at http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/Grads/DKaisler/office.html