Abstract
The nearest large groups of elliptical galaxies, in the Virgo and Fornax clusters, play a central role in determinations of the Hubble constant, H0, and hence the cosmological rate of expansion. Because the relative distances between these two clusters and more remote clusters are well known, absolute distance determinations to Virgo and Fornax should establish the Hubble constant for the local Universe. In addition, elliptical galaxies reside predominantly in the cores of clusters, so distance calibrations for ellipticals should minimize the uncertainties due to the possibly large extent of the clusters along the line of sight. A powerful and direct way of establishing such distances is to use thebrightest red-giant stars, which have nearly uniform luminosities1,2. Here we report the direct observation of old red-giant stars in a dwarf elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster. We determine a distance to this galaxy, and thus to the core of the Virgo cluster, of 15.7 ± 1.5 megaparsecs, from which we estimate a Hubble constant of H0 = 77 ± 8 km s−1 Mpc−1. Under the assumption of a low-density Universe with the simplest cosmology, the age of the Universe is no more than 12–13 billion years.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lee, M. G., Freedman, W. L. & Madore, B. F. The tip of the red giant branch as a distance indicator for resolved galaxies. Astrophys. J. 417, 553–559 (1993).
Mould, J. & Kristian, J. The stellar populations in the halos of M31 and M33. Astrophys. J. 305, 591–599 (1986).
Lee, M. G. The distance to nearby galaxy NGC 3109 based on the tip of the red giant branch. Astrophys. J. 408, 409–415 (1993).
Sakai, S., Madore, B. F. & Freedman, W. L. Tip of the red giant branch distances to galaxies. III. The dwarf galaxy sextans A. Astrophys. J. 461, 713–723 (1996).
Da Costa, G. S. & Armandroff, T. E. Standard globular cluster giant branches in the (M1I, (V − I)0) plane. Astron. J. 100, 162–181 (1990).
Pierce, M. J. et al. The Hubble constant and Virgo cluster distance from observations of Cepheid variables. Nature 371, 385–389 (1994).
Freedman, W. L. et al. Distance to the Virgo cluster galaxy M100 from Hubble Space Telescope observations of Cepheids. Nature 371, 757–762 (1994).
Ferrarese, L. et al. The extragalactic distance scale key project. IV. The discovery of Cepheids and a new distance to M100 using the HST. Astrophys. J. 464, 568–599 (1996).
Saha, A. et al. Cepheid calibration of the peak brightness of SNeIa. V. SN1981B in NGC 4536. Astrophys. J. 466, 55–91 (1996).
Saha, A. et al. Cepheid calibration of the peak brightness of SNeIa. VI. SN1960F in NGC 4496A. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 107, 693–737 (1996).
Ferguson, H. C. & Sandage, A. The spatial distributions and intrinsic shapes of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax custers. Astrophys. J. 346, L53–L56 (1989).
Stetson, . B., Davis, L. E. & Crabtree, D. R. in CCDs in Astronomy (ed. Jacoby, G. H.) 289–304 (ASP Conf. Ser. 8, Astron. Soc. Pacific, San Francisco, (1990)).
Holtzman, J. A. et al. The photometric performance and calibration of WFPC2. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 107, 1065–1093 (1995).
Whitmore, B. & Heyer, I. New Results on Charge Transfer Efficiency and Constraints on Flat-Field Accuracy (Instrument Science Rep. 97-08, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, (1997)).
Couture, J., Harris, W. E. & Allwright, J. W. B. BVI photometry of globular clusters in M87. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 73, 671–683 (1990).
Secker, J. & Harris, W. E. Amaximum-likelihood analysis of globular cluster luminosity distributions in the Virgo cluster. Astron. J. 105, 1358–1368 (1993).
Caldwell, N., Armandroff, T. E., Da Costa, G. S. & Seitzer, P. Dwarf elliptical galaxies in the M81 group: the structure and stellar populations of BK5N and F8D1. Astron. J. 115, 535–558 (1998).
Jacoby, G. H., Ciardullo, R. & Ford, H. C. Planetary nebulae as standard candles. V. The distance to the Virgo cluster. Astrophys. J. 356, 332–349 (1990).
Tonry, J. L., Blakeslee, J. P., Ajhar, E. A. & Dressler, A. The SBF survey of galaxy distances. I. Sample selection, photometric calibration, and the Hubble constant. Astrophys. J. 475, 399–413 (1997).
Feldmeier, J. J., Ciardullo, R. & Jacoby, G. H. Intracluster planetary nebulae in the Virgo cluster I. Initial results. Astrophys. J. (in the press).
Soria, R. et al. Detection of the tip of the red giant branch in NGC 5128. Astrophys. J. 465, 79–90 (1996).
Elson, R. A. W. Red giants in the halo of the S0 galaxy NGC 3115: a distance and a bimodal metallicity distribution. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 286, 771–776 (1997).
Sakai, S. et al. Detection of the tip of the red giant branch in NGC 3379 (M105) in the Leo I group using the Hubble Space Telescope. Astrophys. J. 478, 49–57 (1997).
Colless, M. & Dunn, A. M. Structure and dynamics of the Coma cluster. Astrophys. J. 458, 435–454 (1996).
Mould, J. et al. Limits on the Hubble constant from the HST distance of M100. Astrophys. J. 449, 413–421 (1995).
van den Bergh, S. The Hubble parameter. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacif. 104, 861–883 (1992).
Faber, S. M. et al. Spectroscopy and photometry of elliptical galaxies: VI. Sample selection and data summary. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 69, 763–808 (1989).
Hjorth, J. & Tanvir, N. R. Calibration of the fundamental plane zero point in the Leo I group and an estimate of the Hubble constant. Astrophys. J. 482, 68–74 (1997).
Harris, W. E. et al. NGC 2419, M92, and the age gradient in the galactic halo. Astron. J. 114, 1030–1042 (1997).
Gratton, R. G. et al. Ages of globular clusters from hipparcos parallaxes of local subdwarfs. Astrophys. J. 491, 749–771 (1997).
Cassisi, S. & Salaris, M. The tip of the red giant branch as a distance indicator: theoretical calibration and the value of H0. Mem. Soc. Astron. Ital. (in the press).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harris, W., Durrell, P., Pierce, M. et al. Constraints on the Hubble constant from observations of the brightest red-giant stars in a Virgo-cluster galaxy. Nature 395, 45–47 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/25673
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/25673
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
