is there, in fact, any system of globular clusters which actually traces the underlying stellar light across the underlying galaxy?
More like this
Today we step back and Hans runs The Big Questions past us.
It is always good to think about the Big Picture.
The Big Questions
"I may be an old lion, but if someone puts his hand in my mouth, I can still bite it off." -Wilhelm Steinitz
When you look at a typical galaxy, you usually find a disk, a bulge, and a few dots diffusely strewn about the exterior.
final stretch and we contemplate big stellar clusters in small galaxies
and we ponder the orbits of globulars, red and blue,
what does this tell us about where and when they formed
and where and when they get eaten
In the inner regions, won't they get lost against the high surface brightness regions? (And, yes, there is the whole destruction issue).
No.
very economic, answers two questions in one
In mergers the young GCs (within various HST fields) appear to follow the light profile, modulo the problems of defining either in recent mergers. Seen plots of this in conferences but don't know if it's in an actual paper. For older systems Brad's parenthetical comment is very relevant.
Here The intermediate age GCs follow the light profile more closely than normal ellipticals. Already evidence of evolution too.
Simple questions and all that....