A NEW CEPHEID DISTANCE TO THE GIANT SPIRAL M101 BASED ON IMAGE SUBTRACTION OF HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/ADVANCED CAMERA FOR SURVEYS OBSERVATIONS
We accurately determine a new Cepheid distance to M101 (NGC 5457) using archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Advanced Camera for Surveys V and I time series photometry of two fields within the galaxy. We make a slight modification to the ISIS image subtraction package to obtain optimal differential light curves from HST data. We discovered 827 Cepheids with periods between 3 and 80 days, the largest extragalactic sample of Cepheids observed with HST by a factor of two. With this large Cepheid sample, we find that the relative distance of M101 from the Large Magellanic Cloud is {Delta}{mu}{sub LMC} = 10.63 {+-} 0.04 (random) {+-} 0.06 (systematic) mag. If we use the geometrically determined maser distance to NGC 4258 as our distance anchor, the distance modulus of M101 is {mu}{sub 0} = 29.04 {+-} 0.05 (random) {+-} 0.18 (systematic) mag or D = 6.4 {+-} 0.2 (random) {+-} 0.5 (systematic) Mpc. The uncertainty is dominated by the maser distance estimate ({+-}0.15 mag), which should improve over the next few years. We determine a steep metallicity dependence, {gamma}, for our Cepheid sample through two methods, yielding {gamma} = -0.80 {+-} 0.21 (random) {+-} 0.06 (systematic) mag dex{sup -1} and {gamma} = -0.72{sup +0.22}{sub -0.25} (random) {+-} 0.06 (systematic) mag dex{sup -1}. We see marginal evidence for variations in the Wesenheit period-luminosity relation slope as a function of deprojected galactocentric radius. We also use the tip of the red giant branch method to independently determine the distance modulus to M101 of {mu}{sub 0} = 29.05 {+-} 0.06 (random) {+-} 0.12 (systematic) mag.
- OSTI ID:
- 21576715
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 733, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/733/2/124; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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