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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(492), p. L37-L40, 1998

DOI: 10.1086/311082

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The Luminosity Function of the Globular Cluster NGC 6397 Near the Limit of Hydrogen Burning

Journal article published in 1997 by Ivan R. King, Jay Anderson, Adrienne M. Cool, Giampaolo Piotto ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Preprint: archiving forbidden
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Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Second-epoch HST observations of NGC 6397 have led to the measurement of proper motions accurate enough to separate the faintest cluster stars from the field, thus extending the luminosity function of this globular cluster far enough to approach the limit of hydrogen burning on the main sequence. We isolate a sample of 1385 main-sequence stars, from just below the turnoff down to I=24.5 (M_I~12.5), which corresponds to a mass of less than 0.1 solar masses for the metallicity of this cluster. Below I=22 (M_I~10), the main-sequence luminosity function drops rapidly, in a manner similar to that predicted by theoretical models of low-mass stars near the hydrogen-burning limit. Comment: Tex, 4 pages, 4 figures, 2 style files (apjlet.tex, twocolumns.tex); Astrophysical Journal Letters, accepted