Description
We have used the Hubble Space Telescope and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 to image the putative tidal dwarf galaxy located at the tip of the Southern tidal tail of NGC 4038/4039, the Antennae. We resolve individual stars and identify two stellar populations. Hundreds of massive stars are present, concentrated into tight OB associations on scales of 200pc, with ages ranging from 2 to 100Myr. An older stellar population is distributed roughly following the outer contours of the neutral hydrogen in the tidal tail; we associate these stars with material ejected from the outer disks of the two spirals. The older stellar population has a red giant branch tip at I=26.5+/-0.2 from which we derive a distance modulus (m-M)_0_=30.7+/-0.25. The implied distance of 13.8+/-1.7Mpc is significantly smaller than commonly quoted distances for NGC 4038/4039. In contrast to the previously studied core of the merger, we find no superstar clusters (SSCs).
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