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Stellar content and distances to the isolated spiral galaxies NGC 6503 and NGC 6946

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Abstract

Based on archival Hubble Space Telescope images, we have performed stellar photometry of several fields in the isolated spiral galaxies NGC 6503 and NGC 6946 with high peculiar velocities. Based on the TRGB method, we have determined the distances to the galaxies: D = 6.30 ± 0.10 Mpc for NGC 6503 and D = 6.72 ± 0.15 Mpc for NGC 6946. The current stellar content of the galaxies does not differ from that of other similar galaxies. The metallicity for young stars in NGC 6503 is Z = 0.02 (corresponding to the solar metallicity), while the metallicity for stars in NGC 6946 reaches Z = 0.05. Very few old globular clusters have been found in NGC 6946, while they have not been found at all in NGC 6503. The number density distribution of stars with different ages in NGC 6503 does not differ from the analogous distributions in other galaxies. The large sizes of the thick disk in NGC 6503, which is clearly seen up to 6 kpc from the galactic disk plane and whose possible extension is noticeable up to 8.6 kpc from the plane, are a difference. The sizes of the region occupied by red giants of the disk in NGC 6503 are 51 × 17 kpc, which are not much larger than the sizes of this galaxy from H I radio observations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnii Arkhyz, Karachai-Cherkessian Republic, 369167, Russia

    N. A. Tikhonov

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  1. N. A. Tikhonov
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Correspondence to N. A. Tikhonov.

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Original Russian Text © N.A. Tikhonov, 2014, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2014, Vol. 40, No. 9, pp. 596–610.

Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc. under contract No. NAS5-26555. These observations are associated with proposals 9293, 9788, 12331, 12450, 12546, 13364.

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Tikhonov, N.A. Stellar content and distances to the isolated spiral galaxies NGC 6503 and NGC 6946. Astron. Lett. 40, 537–550 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773714090035

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