Globular cluster clustering around ultra compact dwarf galaxies in the halo of NGC 1399

Abstract

AbstractWe tested the spatial distribution of UCDs and GCs in the halo of NGC 1399 in the Fornax cluster. In particular we tried to find out if globular clusters are more abundant in the vicinity of UCDs than what is expected from their global distribution. A local overabundance of globular clusters was found around UCDs on a scale of 1 kpc compared to what is expected from the large scale distribution of globulars in the host galaxy. This effect is stronger for the metal-poor blue GCs and weaker for the red GCs. An explanation for these clustered globulars is either that they are the remains of a GC system of an ancestor dwarf galaxy before it was stripped to its nucleus, which appears as UCD today. Alternatively these clustered GCs could have been originally part of a super star cluster complex.