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Description
J, H and K' images obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope were used to investigate the stellar contents of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) in the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 185. The bright parts of (K, J-K) and (K, H-K) color-magnitude diagrams consist of a group of brights blue stars, a dominant populations of M-giants, and a red C star population. There were 73 C stars with a mean magnitude of <K>=16.26+/-0.38, corresponding to <M_K_>=-7.93 and mean colors of <(J-k)_0_>=2.253 and <(H-K)_0_>=0.865. The number ratio of C stars to M-giants was estimated to be 0.11+/-0.04 without any radial gradient from the center of NGC 185. The (J-K) and (H-K) color distributions of AGB stars showed an M-giant pick, blue and red tails, where the latter two correspond to AGB stars younger than those along M-giant peak and C stars. The bolometric luminosity functions of M-giants and C stars indicated that the M-giant AGB sequence has terminated at M_bol_=-6.2, while the most luminous C star very similar to that of Nowotny et al. (2003, Cat. <J/A+A/403/93>) which was derived from VI band photometry. The logarithmic slope of the luminosity function for bright M-giant stars was estimated to be 0.83+/-0.02 in K band. Theoritical isochrone models, compared with the observed near-infrared photometric properties of AGB stars, indicated that the star formation in NGC 185 has a wide range of age span with possibly two different epochs of star formation.
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