Logo image
Euclid: Early Release Observations – Internal kinematics and the convective-transition gap of NGC 6397: High-precision multiple-pass photometry and astrometry
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Euclid: Early Release Observations – Internal kinematics and the convective-transition gap of NGC 6397: High-precision multiple-pass photometry and astrometry

M Griggio, M Libralato, R Gerasimov, L.R Bedin, A Bellini, J Anderson, E Dalessandro, E Vesperini, H Baumgardt, D Massari, …
Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol.Forthcoming articles(Forthcoming articles)
2026

Abstract

globular clusters: individual: NGC 6397 stars: kinematics and dynamics stars: luminosity function, mass function stars: low-mass stars: interiors proper-motions Astrophysics
We present a `multiple-pass' data-reduction tool designed for Euclid, based on software developed for the Space Telescope (HST), which improves the astrometric and photometric precision for faint sources and in crowded fields. In this work, we apply it to Euclid Early Release Observations of the Galactic globular cluster NGC,6397. By combining our new catalogue with archival HST data, separated by a time span of approximately 20 years, we were able to measure high-precision proper motions and investigate the radial variations in the energy equipartition and velocity anisotropy of the cluster. The combination of deep and wide-field observations also allowed us to derive the present-day local mass function of NGC,6397 and to study the radial dependence of mass segregation and binary fraction. Finally, we report the discovery of a subtle under-density of stars in the colour-magnitude diagram of NGC,6397 around a stellar mass of 0.35,M_(⊙) with a more than 5σ confidence level. This feature is consistent with the Hubble Gaia M-dwarf gap discovered in Galactic field stars, but it has never previously been observed in a globular cluster. The gap is caused by the onset of full convection in stellar interiors. We demonstrate that the properties of the gap provide tight constraints on the distance to NGC,6397 and its intrinsic metallicity dispersion, offering a new benchmark for stellar evolution models.
pdf
PUB199a561b38228d7a-741656-paper-draft6.67 MBDownloadView
Author's Accepted Manuscript Open Access CC BY V4.0
url
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202660441View
Published (Version of record) Open

Metrics

2 Record Views

Details

Logo image

Usage Policy