Issue |
A&A
Volume 466, Number 2, May I 2007
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 501 - 507 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20054536 | |
Published online | 20 February 2007 |
Carbon stars and C/M ratio in the WLM dwarf irregular galaxy *
1
Department of Astronomy, University of Sofia, 5 James Bourchier, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria e-mail: [valcheva;evgeni;japet]@phys.uni-sofia.bg
2
European Southern Observatory, Ave. Alonso de Cordova 3107, Casilla 19, Santiago 19001, Chile e-mail: vivanov@eso.org
Received:
17
November
2005
Accepted:
18
January
2007
We identify the rich carbon star population of the
Magellanic-type dwarf irregular galaxy WLM (Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte)
and study its photometric properties from deep near-IR
observations. The galaxy also exhibits a clear presence of oxygen-rich population. We derive a carbon to M-star ratio of
= 0.56±0.12, relatively high in comparison with many galaxies.
The spatial distribution of the AGB stars in WLM
hints at the presence of two stellar complexes with a size of a
few hundred parsecs.
Using the
map of WLM and the derived gas-to-dust ratio
for this galaxy N(
)/E(
) = 60±10 [ 1021 at. cm-2 mag-1] we re-determined the distance modulus of WLM
from the IR photometry of four known Cepheids, obtaining
(
)0 = 24.84±0.14 mag. In addition, we determine the
scale length of 0.75±0.14 kpc of WLM disk in the J-band.
Key words: galaxies: individual: WLM / stars: AGB and post-AGB / stars: carbon / galaxies: irregular / Local Group
© ESO, 2007
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.