The bottom of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the old open cluster NGC 2158

Abstract

We use 10 orbits of Advanced Camera for Surveys observations to reach the end of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the solar-metallicity open cluster NGC 2158. Our photometry and completeness tests show that the end falls at magnitude m_F606W = 27.5 +/- 0.15, which implies an age between ~1.8 and ~2.0 Gyr, consistent with the age of 1.9 +/- 0.2 Gyr obtained from fits to the main-sequence turn-off. The faintest white dwarfs show a clear turn toward bluer colors, as predicted by theoretical isochrones.

12 pages, 4 figures (2 in low resolution, and 1 bonus for astro-ph-only). ApJ Letter accepted on December 1, 2009

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• The End of the White Dwarf Cooling Sequence in M4: an efficient approach
• The Ratio of Helium- to Hydrogen-Atmosphere White Dwarfs: Direct Evidence for Convective Mixing
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