The Spatial Structure of the M104 Globular Cluster System
Session 74 -- Globular Clusters
Display presentation, Friday, January 14, 9:30-6:45, Salons I/II Room (Crystal Gateway)

## [74.01] The Spatial Structure of the M104 Globular Cluster System

T.J. Bridges (Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees), D.A. Hanes (Queen's University at Kingston)

We have recently obtained wide-field, short exposure CCD images of M104 (The Sombrero). These exposures, taken behind the f/1 focal reducer at the AAT, cover 17~ x~ 17 arcmin and are 300 sec total in both V and R. We are using these data to investigate the spatial structure of the M104 globular cluster system (GCS). In particular, we will determine the radial density profile of the GCS from the galaxy center out to $\sim$ 10 arcmin (corresponding to 30 kpc if D$_{\rm M104}$ =10 Mpc). We will then be able to test earlier tentative findings, based on uncalibrated wide-field photographic star--counts and deep CCD frames of limited spatial extent, that there is a `central deficit' of globular clusters relative to the halo light of M104. Such differences in spatial structure between galactic subsystems have important implications for galaxy formation and subsequent dynamical evolution. We will also obtain the flattening of the GCS, and compare to that observed for the halo isophotes (where b/a = 0.6). Preliminary results will be presented at the Jan. 1994 AAS meeting.