The Detection of Bright Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars in the Nearby Elliptical Galaxy Maffei 1

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Abstract
We have used the adaptive optics system on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to study a field 6' from the center of the heavily obscured elliptical galaxy Maffei 1. Our near diffraction-limited H and K' images reveal an excess population of objects with respect to a background field, and we conclude that the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) tip in Maffei 1 occurs at K = 20 ± 0.25. Assuming that stars at the AGB tip in Maffei 1 have the same intrinsic luminosity as those in the bulge of M31, then the actual distance modulus of Maffei 1 is 28.2 ± 0.3 if AV = 5.1, which corresponds to a distance of 4.4 Mpc. This is in excellent agreement with the distance estimated from surface brightness fluctuations in the infrared and confirms that Maffei 1 is too distant to affect the dynamics of the Local Group significantly.
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