Three candidate globular clusters discovered in the Galactic bulge
arXiv:1901.08574 · doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slz010
Abstract
This work reports the discovery of three new globular clusters (GCs) towards the Galactic bulge - Camargo 1107, 1108, and 1109. The discovery was made using the WISE, 2MASS, VVV, and Gaia-DR2 photometry. The new findings are old (12.0-13.5 Gyr) and metal-poor GCs ([Fe/H] < -1.5 dex) located in the bulge area close to the Milky Way (MW) mid-plane. Although the old ages and low metallicities suggest that the newly discovered GCs are likely associated with the inner halo the possibility of these clusters being part of a primordial bulge GC subpopulation cannot be ruled out. Camargo 1107, for instance, presents a metallicity of [Fe/H] = -2.2 +/- 0.4 dex and an age of 13.5 +/- 2 Gyr, which may suggest that this cluster formed just after the Big Bang in the very early Universe. The discovery of GCs such as the new findings is crucial to built a coherent picture of the inner Galaxy. It is likely that at least a few more dozens of GCs are still to be discovered in the bulge.
5 pages, 3 figures
References in corpus (15)
- Near-IR properties of 24 Globular Clusters in the Galactic Bulge
- The Ages of the Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and the Halo from Nearby White Dwarfs
- Open clusters in dense fields: the importance of field-star decontamination for NGC5715, Lynga4, Lynga9, Trumpler23, Trumpler26 and Czernik37
- A New Catalog of Globular Clusters in the Milky Way
- A Sequoia in the Garden: FSR 1758 - Dwarf Galaxy or Giant Globular Cluster?
- Near-Infrared Photometry of Globular Clusters Towards the Galactic Bulge: Observations and Photometric Metallicity Indicators
- Discovery of RR Lyrae Stars in the Nuclear Bulge of the Milky Way
- Ages of the Bulge globular clusters NGC 6522 and NGC 6626 (M28) from HST Proper-motion-cleaned Color-Magnitude Diagrams
- Tracing the Galactic spiral structure with embedded clusters
- The Stellar Halo in the Inner Milky Way: Predicted Shape and Kinematics
- Near-Infrared Variability Study of the Central 2.3 arcmin x 2.3 arcmin of the Galactic Centre II. Identification of RR Lyrae Stars in the Milky Way Nuclear Star Cluster
- New Galactic embedded clusters and candidates from a WISE Survey
- Discovery of two embedded clusters with WISE in the high Galactic latitude cloud HRK 81.4-77.8
- New detections of embedded clusters in the Galactic halo
- Galactic Orbits of Globular Clusters in the Region of the Galactic Bulge