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The Globular Cluster System of NGC 1316

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

Matías Gómez
Affiliation:
Depto. Astronomía y Astrofísica, P. Universidad Católica de Chile. Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile
Tom Richtler
Affiliation:
Depto. de Física, Universidad de Concepción. Casilla 4009, Concepción, Chile
Leopoldo Infante
Affiliation:
Depto. Astronomía y Astrofísica, P. Universidad Católica de Chile. Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile
Georg Drenkhahn
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1317, D-85741 Garching bei München, Germany

Abstract

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We have studied the Globular Cluster System of the merger galaxy NGC 1316 in Fornax, using CCD BV I photometry. Dividing the sample into red (presumably metal-rich) and blue (metal-poor) subpopulations at B - I = 1.75, we find that they follow strikingly different angular distributions. The red clusters show a strong correlation with the galaxy elongation, but the blue ones are circularly distributed. An astonishingly low specific frequency for NGC 1316 of only SN = 0.9±0.2 is derived, which confirms with a larger field a previous finding by Grillmair et al. (1999). Assuming a “normal” SN of ∼ 4 for early-type galaxies, we use stellar population synthesis models to estimate the merger age to about 2 Gyr, if an intermediate-age population were to explain the low SN we observe. By fitting t5 functions to the Globular Cluster Luminosity Function (GCLF), we derive the following turnover magnitudes: and . They support that NGC 1316, in spite of its outlying location, is at the same distance as the core of the Fornax cluster.

Type
Part 2. Globular Cluster Systems of Distant Galaxies
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2002 

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