1 research outputs found
JWST NIRCam Photometry: A Study of Globular Clusters Surrounding Bright Elliptical Galaxy VV 191a at z=0.0513
James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam images have revealed 443 globular cluster
(GC) candidates around the elliptical galaxy VV 191a. NIRCam
broadband observations are made at 0.9-4.5 m using filters F090W, F150W,
F356W, and F444W. Using photometry, the data is analyzed to present
color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) that suggest a fairly uniform population of
GCs. Color histograms show a unimodal color distribution that is well fit by a
single Gaussian, using color to primarily trace the metallicity. The findings
show the sample's globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) does not reach
the turnover value and is, therefore, more luminous than what is typically
expected, with an absolute AB magnitude, mag, reaching
within nearly one magnitude of the classical turnover value. We attribute this
to the completeness in the sample. Models show that the mass estimate of the
GCs detected tends to be more massive, reaching upward of . However, the results show that current GC models do not quite align
with the data. We find that the models appear to be bluer than the JWST data in
the reddest (F356W-F444W) filters and redder than the data in the bluest
(F090W-F150W) filters and may need to be revised to improve the modeling of
near-IR colors of old, metal-poor stellar populations.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure