Whiting 1

RA:

02:02:57

Dec:

-03:15:10

Distance from Sun:

98.1 kly

Distance from Galactic Center:

112.5 kly

Apparent Diameter:

1.2 arc min

Brightness:

15.03 mag vis

Radial Velocity:

-130.6 +/- 1.8 km/s

Diameter:

ly

Abs. Mag:

-2.46 Mag vis

During their hunt for new Local Group galaxies, Whiting, Hau and Irwin (2002) discovered this object and cataloged it as WHI B0200-03, as a suspected star cluster.

Based on CCD photometry in the BVI bands of the spectrum, Carraro (2005) identified it as a compact star cluster of low metallicity ([Fe/H]=-1.20) of approximate age of 5 billion years. It is clearly a halo object, and definitely not an open cluster, but probably one of the youngest globular clusters in the Milky Way's halo.

It was found that this cluster is probably a former member of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG), or Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph), the nearby dwarf galaxy discovered in 1994, which is currently in a close and perhaps final encounter before its tidal disruption, with our Milky Way Galaxy.

The image in this page was obtained by Martin Germano - [hi-res version].

References

• Giovanni Carraro, 2005. Whiting 1: A New Halo Young Globular Cluster. Astrophysical Journal, Volume 621, Issue 1, pp. L61-L64 (03/2005) [ADS: 2005ApJ...621L..61C] - [Prerpint: astro-ph/0501465]
• Alan B. Whiting, G. K. T. Hau, and Mike Irwin, 2002. The Southern Dwarf Hunt: Local Group Dwarf Candidates in the Southern Sky. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Volume 141, Issue 1, pp. 123-146 (07/2002) [ADS: 2002ApJS..141..123W] - [Preprint: astro-ph/0205502]