The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899 and based in Washington, DC, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. Its membership of about 7,000 individuals also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research and educational interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects comprising contemporary astronomy. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity's scientific understanding of the universe.
The White Dwarf Cooling Age of M67
Harvey B. Richer,Gregory G. Fahlman,Joanne Rosvick, andRodrigo Ibata
Published 1998 July 31 • © 1998. The AmericanAstronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed inU.S.A.
The Astrophysical Journal,Volume 504,Number 2Citation Harvey B. Richeret al 1998ApJ504 L91DOI 10.1086/311586
Harvey B. Richer
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia 129-2219 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Visiting Astronomer, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which is operated by CNRS of France, NRC of Canada and the University of Hawaii
Gregory G. Fahlman
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia 129-2219 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Visiting Astronomer, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which is operated by CNRS of France, NRC of Canada and the University of Hawaii
Joanne Rosvick
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia 129-2219 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Rodrigo Ibata
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia 129-2219 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Present address: European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany
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- Received1998 June 10
- Accepted1998 July 16
- Published1998 July 31
Abstract
A deep imaging survey covering the entire 23' diameter of the old open cluster M67 toV=25 has been carried out using the mosaic imager (UHCam) on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The cluster color-magnitude diagram (CMD) can be traced from stars on its giant branch atMV=+1 down through main-sequence stars at least as faint asMV=13.5. Stars this low in luminosity have masses below 0.15M☉. A modest white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence is also observed commencing slightly fainter thanMV=10 and, after correction for background galaxy and stellar field contamination, terminating nearMV=14.6. The observed WDs follow quite closely a theoretical cooling sequence for 0.7M☉ pure carbon core WDs with hydrogen-rich atmospheres (DA WDs). The cooling time to anMV of 14.6 for such WDs is 4.3 Gyr, which we take as the WD cooling age of the cluster. A fit of a set of isochrones to the cluster CMD indicates a turnoff age of 4.0 Gyr. The excellent agreement between these results suggests that ages derived from white dwarf cooling should be considered as reliable as those from other dating techniques. The WDs currently contribute about 9% of the total cluster mass, but the number seen appears to be somewhat low when compared with the number of giants observed in the cluster.
