The Araucaria Project: The Distance to NGC 300 from the Red Giant Branch Tip Using HST ACS Imaging

We have used the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain deep photometry of the NGC 300 spiral galaxy in the Sculptor group. The results have been used to derive an accurate distance determination based on the tip of the red giant branch distance estimator. Both edge-detection and maximum likelihood methods have been applied to derive a distance modulus (m-M)₀=26.30+/-0.03+/-0.12 for edge detection and (m-M)₀=26.36+/-0.02+/-0.12 for maximum likelihood. These results are fully consistent with the recent distance estimate derived from near-IR photometry of Cepheids variable stars in the context of the Araucaria project, (m-M)₀=26.37+/-0.05+/-0.03 (Gieren and coworkers).

Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program GO-9492.