Blue stragglers in the core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae
Boksenberg, A.; Barbieri, C.; Weigelt, G.; Nota, A.; Crane, P.; Baxter, D.; Sparks, W. B.; Albrecht, R.; Blades, J. C.; Deharveng, J. M.; Disney, M. J.; Jakobsen, P.; Kamperman, T. M.; King, I. R.; Macchetto, F.; Mackay, C. D.; Paresce, F.; Greenfield, P.; Jedrzejewski, R.; Meylan, G.; Shara, M.
United States, Netherlands
Abstract
High-resolution observations of the core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae with the Faint Object Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a high density of 'blue straggler' stars, occupying the upper end of the main sequence from which all stars in the cluster should have long since evolved. Their presence in the dense core supports the hypothesis that they formed by stellar collision and coalescence, and, as the heaviest objects in the cluster, have drifted to the core