MAPPING DIFFERENTIAL REDDENING IN THE INNER GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTER SYSTEM
- Departamento de Astronomia y Astrofisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, 782-0436 Macul, Santiago (Chile)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1090 (United States)
- Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
- Department of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107 (United States)
A serious limitation in the study of many globular clusters-especially those located near the Galactic center-has been the existence of large and differential extinction by foreground dust. In a series of papers, we intend to map the differential extinction and remove its effects, using a new dereddening technique, in a sample of clusters in the direction of the inner Galaxy, observed using the Magellan 6.5 m telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. These observations and their analysis will let us produce high-quality color-magnitude diagrams of these poorly studied clusters that will allow us to determine these clusters' relative ages, distances, and chemistry and to address important questions about the formation and the evolution of the inner Galaxy. We also intend to use the maps of the differential extinction to sample and characterize the interstellar medium along the numerous low-latitude lines of sight where the clusters in our sample lie. In this first paper, we describe in detail our dereddening method along with the powerful statistics tools that allow us to apply it, and we show the kind of results that we can expect, applying the method to M62, one of the clusters in our sample. The width of the main sequence and lower red giant branch narrows by a factor of two after applying our dereddening technique, which will significantly help to constrain the age, distance, and metallicity of the cluster.
- OSTI ID:
- 21583149
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 141, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/141/5/146; ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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