HST Photometry of the Fornax dSph Galaxy: cluster 4 and its field

Abstract

Using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope archive, color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) have been constructed for globular cluster 4 in the Fornax dSph galaxy and its surrounding field. These diagrams extend below the main-sequence turnoffs and have yielded measurements of the ages of the populations. The most prominent features of the CMD of the Fornax field population are a heavily populated red clump of horizontal branch (HB) stars, a broad red giant branch (RGB), and a main sequence that spans a large range in luminosity. In this CMD, there are very few stars at the positions of the HBs of the five globular clusters in Fornax, which suggests that only a very small fraction of the field population resembles the clusters in age and chemical composition. The large span in luminosity of the main-sequence suggests that star formation began in the field about 12 Gyrs ago and continued to about 0.5 Gyr ago. There are separate subgiant branches in the CMD, which indicate that the star formation was not continuous but occurred in bursts. The CMD of cluster 4 has a steep RGB, from which we estimate [Fe/H] around -2.0. This is considerably lower than estimates from the integrated light of the cluster, and the origins of this discrepancy are discussed.