THE BLUE HOOK POPULATIONS OF MASSIVE GLOBULAR CLUSTERS
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Code 667, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
- Adnet Systems, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85712 (United States)
We present new Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet color-magnitude diagrams of five massive Galactic globular clusters: NGC 2419, NGC 6273, NGC 6715, NGC 6388, and NGC 6441. These observations were obtained to investigate the 'blue hook' (BH) phenomenon previously observed in UV images of the globular clusters {omega} Cen and NGC 2808. Blue hook stars are a class of hot (approximately 35,000 K) subluminous horizontal branch stars that occupy a region of the HR diagram that is unexplained by canonical stellar evolution theory. By coupling new stellar evolution models to appropriate non-LTE synthetic spectra, we investigate various theoretical explanations for these stars. Specifically, we compare our photometry to canonical models at standard cluster abundances, canonical models with enhanced helium (consistent with cluster self-enrichment at early times), and flash-mixed models formed via a late helium-core flash on the white dwarf cooling curve. We find that flash-mixed models are required to explain the faint luminosity of the BH stars, although neither the canonical models nor the flash-mixed models can explain the range of color observed in such stars, especially those in the most metal-rich clusters. Aside from the variation in the color range, no clear trends emerge in the morphology of the BH population with respect to metallicity.
- OSTI ID:
- 21455063
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 718, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/718/2/1332; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ABUNDANCE
COLOR
HELIUM
LUMINOSITY
PHOTOMETRY
STAR EVOLUTION
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
TELESCOPES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
WHITE DWARF STARS
ATMOSPHERES
DWARF STARS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
EVOLUTION
FLUIDS
GASES
NONMETALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
RARE GASES
STARS