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Session 54 - Star Clusters, Kinematics and the Galactic Center.
Display session, Wednesday, June 10
Atlas Ballroom,
We examine the distribution of globular clusters over luminosity and B-I color for three early-type galaxies in the Fornax cluster using imaging data from the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope. The luminosity functions we derive are in most cases better than 50% complete down to B = 26.5. We find that both the luminosity functions and color distributions of globular clusters in NGC 1399 and NGC 1404 are virtually indistinguishable. The metallicity distribution function, as inferred from the color distributions in these two galaxies, is similar to or even broader than that of M 87. The objects detected around NGC 1316 are considerably bluer and fainter on average than the globulars associated with NGC 1399, and their distribution over magnitude appears to be more consistent with that of an open cluster luminosity function. The number of unresolved objects we find at a distance of 440 kpc from NGC 1399 is consistent with nothing more than compact background galaxies, though the small field of view of the WFPC2 does not allow us to put strong constraints on the number of intergalactic globular clusters.
