JHK' photometry of C stars in NGC 147

The bolometric luminosity function of M giant stars in NGC 147 extends up to M_bol_=-5.8 magnitude, and that of only C stars spans -5.6<M_bol_<-3.5. The color histograms of AGB stars in (J-K) and (H-K) show a main peak containing M giant stars, a red tail containing C stars with a weak excess, and a blue excess possibly due to bright blue foreground stars and AGB stars younger than M giants. The comparison of the theoretical isochrone models with the color distribution and the brightness of AGB stars indicates that most of the bright M giants in NGC 147 were formed at log(t_yr_)~8.4 with a range of 8.2~8.6.

Ages of the majority of M giant stars in NGC 147 are similar to those of younger M giant stars in its companion NGC 185, while their formation occurred more recently than the older M giant stars in NGC 185 by ~2Gyrs.