Bibcode
Monelli, M.; Testa, V.; Bono, G.; Ferraro, I.; Iannicola, G.; Fiorentino, G.; Arcidiacono, C.; Massari, D.; Boutsia, K.; Briguglio, R.; Busoni, L.; Carini, R.; Close, L.; Cresci, G.; Esposito, S.; Fini, L.; Fumana, M.; Guerra, J. C.; Hill, J.; Kulesa, C.; Mannucci, F.; McCarthy, D.; Pinna, E.; Puglisi, A.; Quiros-Pacheco, F.; Ragazzoni, R.; Riccardi, A.; Skemer, A.; Xompero, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 812, Issue 1, article id. 25, 12 pp. (2015).
Advertised on:
10
2015
Journal
Citations
26
Refereed citations
23
Description
We present deep near-infrared J, {K}{{s}} photometry of the
old, metal-poor Galactic globular cluster M15 obtained with images
collected with the LUCI1 and PISCES cameras available at the Large
Binocular Telescope (LBT). We show how the use of First Light Adaptive
Optics (FLAO) system coupled with the PISCES camera allows us to improve
the limiting magnitude by ∼2 mag in {K}{{s}}. By
analyzing archival Hubble Space Telescope data, we demonstrate that the
quality of the LBT/PISCES color–magnitude diagram is fully
comparable with analogous space-based data. The smaller field of view is
balanced by the shorter exposure time required to reach a similar
photometric limit. We investigated the absolute age of M15 by means of
two methods: (i) by determining the age from the position of the
main-sequence turnoff (MSTO), and (ii) by the magnitude difference
between the MSTO and the well-defined knee detected along the faint
portion of the MS. We derive consistent values of the absolute age of
M15, that is, 12.9 ± 2.6 Gyr and 13.3 ± 1.1 Gyr,
respectively.
Observations were carried out using the Large Binocular Telescope at
Mount Graham, AZ. The LBT is an international collaboration among
institutions in the United States, Italy, and Germany. LBT Corporation
partners are the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona
university system; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; LBT
Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max-Planck Society,
the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; the Ohio
State University; and the Research Corporation, on behalf of the
University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, and University of
Virginia.
Related projects
Galaxy Evolution in the Local Group
Galaxy formation and evolution is a fundamental Astrophysical problem. Its study requires “travelling back in time”, for which there are two complementary approaches. One is to analyse galaxy properties as a function of red-shift. Our team focuses on the other approach, called “Galactic Archaeology”. It is based on the determination of galaxy
Matteo
Monelli