Whiting 1: a new Halo Young Globular Cluster

Abstract

We report on $BVI$ CCD photometry of a field centered in the region of the Galactic star cluster Whiting~1 down to $V=23.0$. This cluster has never been studied insofar, and we provide for the first time estimates of its fundamental parameters, namely, radial extent, age, distance and reddening. Whiting~1 turns out to be a compact star cluster with a diameter of about 1${}^{\prime }$. We find that the cluster is about 5 Gyr old and has a probable metal abundance around [Fe/H]= -1.20. Its position at $b=-60^o.64$ and at a heliocentric distance of about 45 kpc makes the cluster a rather strange object, surely not a disk old open cluster, but perhaps the youngest halo Globular Cluster insofar known.

16 pages, 7 eps figure, accepted for publication as ApJ Letter

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