Hubble Space Telescope imaging of globular clusters in the edge-on spiral galaxies NGC 4565 and NGC 5907

Markus Kissler-Patig*, Keith M. Ashman, Stephen E. Zepf, Kenneth C. Freeman

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    35 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We present a study of the globular cluster systems of two edge-on spiral galaxies, NGC 4565 and NGC 5907, from WFPC2 images in the F450W and F814W filters. The globular cluster systems of both galaxies appear to be similar to the Galactic globular cluster system. In particular, we derive total numbers of globular clusters of NGC(4565) = 204 ± 38+87-53 and NGC(5907) = 170 ± 41+47-72 (where the first are statistical, the second potential systematic errors) for NGC 4565 and NGC 5907, respectively. This determination is based on a comparison with the Milky Way system, for which we adopt a total number of globular clusters of 180 ± 20. The specific frequency of both galaxies is SN ≃ 0.6, indistinguishable from the value for the Milky Way. The similarity in the globular cluster systems of the two galaxies is noteworthy, since they have significantly different thick disks and bulge-to-disk ratios. This would suggest that these two components do not play a major role in the building up of a globular cluster system around late-type galaxies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)197-207
    Number of pages11
    JournalAstronomical Journal
    Volume118
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 1999

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