Bibcode
DOI
Stephens, Andrew W.; Frogel, Jay A.; DePoy, D. L.; Freedman, Wendy; Gallart, Carme; Jablonka, Pascale; Renzini, Alvio; Rich, R. Michael; Davies, Roger
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 125, Issue 5, pp. 2473-2493.
Advertised on:
5
2003
Citations
42
Refereed citations
38
Description
We analyze the stellar populations present in M31 by using nine sets of
adjacent Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS camera 1 and 2 fields with
galactocentric distances ranging from 2' to 20'. These infrared
observations provide some of the highest spatial resolution measurements
of M31 to date; our data place tight constraints on the maximum
luminosities of stars in the bulge of M31. The tip of the red giant
branch is clearly visible at Mbol~-3.8, and the tip of the
asymptotic giant branch (AGB) extends to Mbol~-5. This AGB
peak luminosity is significantly fainter than previously claimed;
through direct comparisons and simulations we show that previous
measurements were affected by image blending. We do observe
field-to-field variations in the luminosity functions, but simulations
show that these differences can be produced by blending in the higher
surface brightness fields. We conclude that the red giant branch of the
bulge of M31 is not measurably different from that of the bulge of the
Milky Way. We also find an unusually high number of bright bluish stars
(7.3 arcmin-2), which appear to be Galactic foreground stars.
Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained
at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA
under contract NAS 5-26555.