The extension of the globular cluster system of NGC 1399, the central galaxy of the Fornax cluster.

FAIFER F.; BASSINO L.; FORTE J.; DIRSCH B.; RICHTLER T.; GEISLER D.

San Juan

Congreso; Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2004

Complejo Astronómico el Leoncito

We present preliminary results of the study of the globular cluster system around NGC 1399, the central giant galaxy of the Fornax cluster, located at a distance of 19 Mpc. This work is based on images obtained with the MOSAIC II CCD imager (mosaic of 8 CCDs mounted on the CTIO Blanco 4m telescope, Chile), using the Washington C and Kron-Cousins R  lters. These images cover an area of one deg2 at the center of the Fornax cluster. The possibility of counting on this large  eld allows us to state, for the  rst time, an indicative value of the total extension of the globular cluster system around NGC 1399. The spatial distribution of the metal-poor globular clusters ("blue"), is less steep than the metal-rich ones ("red"), and its angular extension reaches at least 40- 45 arcmin. According to the Fornax distance adopted here, these values correspond to a radial distance of 220-250 Kpc.