PROPER MOTIONS AND INTERNAL DYNAMICS IN THE CORE OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER M71

Journal Article · Sun May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/751/1/L12· OSTI ID:22047812

Samra, Raminder S; Richer, Harvey B; Heyl, Jeremy S; Goldsbury, Ryan; Walker, Gordon; Woodley, Kristin A ^[1]; Thanjavur, Karun ^[2]

---

1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada)
2. Canada-France-Hawaii Corporation, Waimea, HI 96743-8432 (United States)

We have used Gemini North together with the NIRI-ALTAIR adaptive optics imager in the H and K bands to explore the core of the Galactic globular cluster M71 (NGC 6838). We obtained proper motions for 217 stars and have resolved its internal proper motion dispersion. Using a 3.8 year baseline, the proper motion dispersion in the core is found to be 179 {+-} 17 {mu}as yr{sup -1}. We find no evidence of anisotropy in the motions and no radial variation in the proper motions with respect to distance from the cluster center. We also set an upper limit on any central black hole to be {approx}150 M{sub Sun} at 90% confidence level.

• OSTI ID: 22047812
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 751, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ANISOTROPY
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
DATA ANALYSIS
DISTANCE
MILKY WAY
OPTICS
PROPER MOTION
STAR CLUSTERS
STARS
VARIATIONS