The Hubble Constant from Observations of the Brightest Red Giant Stars in a Virgo-Cluster Galaxy

Abstract

The Virgo and Fornax clusters of galaxies play central roles in determining the Hubble constant H_0. A powerful and direct way of establishing distances for elliptical galaxies is to use the luminosities of the brightest red-giant stars (the TRGB luminosity, at M_I = -4.2). Here we report the direct observation of the TRGB stars in a dwarf elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster. We find its distance to be 15.7 +- 1.5 Megaparsecs, from which we estimate a Hubble constant of H_0 = 77 +- 8 km/s/Mpc. Under the assumption of a low-density Universe with the simplest cosmology, the age of the Universe is no more than 12-13 billion years.

12 pages, LaTeX, with 2 postscript figures; in press for Nature, July 1998

References in corpus (5)

• Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the M81 Group: The Structure and Stellar Populations of BK5N and F8D1
• NGC 2419, M92, and the Age Gradient in the Galactic Halo
• Intracluster Planetary Nebulae in the Virgo Cluster I. Initial Results
• The Distance of the Virgo Cluster
• The "Tip" of the Red Giant Branch as a distance indicator: theoretical calibration and the value of H_0

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Distances to Galaxies from the Correlation Between Luminosities and Linewidths. III. Cluster Template and Global Measurements of H0
• The HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale XXVI. The Calibration of Population II Secondary Distance Indicators and the Value of the Hubble Constant
• Red Giant Branch stars: the theoretical framework
• A Database of Cepheid Distance Moduli and TRGB, GCLF, PNLF and SBF Data Useful for Distance Determinations
• Photometry and the Metallicity Distribution of the Outer Halo of M31
• The Metallicity Distribution in the Halo Stars of NGC 5128: Implications for Galaxy Formation
• Intracluster Red Giant Stars in the Virgo Cluster
• Diffuse Tidal Structures in the Halos of Virgo Ellipticals
• The Inner Halo of M87: A First Direct View of the Red-Giant Population
• Distances, Metallicities, and Ages of Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster from Surface Brightness Fluctuations
• Determining the Location of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in Old Stellar Populations: M33, Andromeda I & II
• On the Progenitors of Two Type II-P Supernovae in the Virgo Cluster
• Testing the Surface Brightness Fluctuations Method for Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Centaurus A Group
• The Distance to M51
• Tip of the Red Giant Branch distances to galaxies with composite stellar populations
• The Stellar Content of the Southern Tail of NGC 4038/9 and a Revised Distance
• The Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project XVIII. The Discovery of Cepheids and a New Distance to NGC 4535 Using the Hubble Space Telescope
• Color-Magnitude Diagrams of Resolved Stars in Virgo Cluster Dwarf Galaxies
• HST Photometry for the Halo Stars in the Leo Elliptical NGC 3377
• VLT surface photometry and isophotal analysis of early-type dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster
• Red Giant Branch Stars as Probes of Stellar Populations I: 2MASS Calibration and Application to 2MASS GC01
• The Globular Cluster Systems in the Coma Ellipticals. I: The Luminosity Function in NGC 4874, and Implications for Hubble's Constant
• First results from SAPAC: towards a 3D-picture of the Fornax cluster core
• Surface brightness fluctuation distances for nearby dwarf elliptical galaxies
• The Metallicity Distribution in the Outer Halo of M33
• The Resolved Stellar Populations of a Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster
• Stellar Populations in the Outer Disk and Halo of the Spiral Galaxy M101
• Issues in the Philosophy of Cosmology
• Time-Varying Fine-Structure Constant Requires Cosmological Constant