VizieR Online Data Catalog: BVI photometry of Whiting 1 (Carraro+, 2007)

Recently Carraro (2005ApJ...621L..61C) drew attention to the remarkable star cluster Whiting 1, showing that it lies at about 40kpc from the Sun and is therefore unquestionably a member of the Galactic halo (l=-60.6{deg}). Its Color Magnitude Diagram (CMD) indicated that Whiting 1 is very young (~5Gyrs) for a globular cluster. It is highly likely that Whiting 1 is originated in a dwarf galaxy that has since been disrupted by the Milky Way. The main purpose of the present study is to better constrain the properties of Whiting 1, and assess whether it belongs to a stellar stream from the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph). Deep CCD photometry in the BVI pass-band obtained with the VLT is used to improve the quality of the CMD, and provide more solid estimates of the cluster distance and age, while high resolution spectra of three evolved stars obtained at Magellan is used to derive the cluster kinematics and analyze its possible membership to the Sgr dSph. We demonstrate that - independently on the Halo model employed - Whiting 1 is part of the trailing stream of the Sgr dSph. We derive a new age estimate of 6.5^+1.0_-0.5Gyr, and a smaller heliocentric distance of 29.4^+1.8_-2.0kpc. The number of globular clusters confirmed to be members of Sgr dSph is now 6. Among these clusters, Whiting 1 is particularly interesting, being the youngest and one of the most metal rich. The existence of Whiting 1 shows how the Sgr dSph was able to form star clusters for a period at least of 6Gyr.

(1 data file).