2007MNRAS.381L..45B

The globular cluster (GC) nature of the recently catalogued candidate FSR1767 is established in the present work. It turns out to be the closest GC so far detected in the Galaxy. The nature of this object is investigated by means of 2MASS colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), the stellar radial density profile (RDP) and proper motions (PM). The properties are consistent with an intermediate-metallicity ([Fe/H] ~ -1.2) GC with a well-defined turnoff (TO), red giant branch (RGB) and blue horizontal branch (HB). The distance of FSR1767 from the Sun is d_☉~ 1.5kpc, and it is located at the Galactocentric distance R_GC~ 5.7kpc. With the space velocity components (V, W) = (184±14, -43±14)km/s, FSR1767 appears to be a Palomar-like GC with M_V~ -4.7, which currently lies ~57pc below the Galactic plane. The RDP is well represented by a King profile with the core and tidal radii R_core= 0.24±0.08pc and R_tidal= 3.1±1.0pc, respectively, with a small half-light radius R_h= 0.60±0.15pc. The optical absorption is moderate for an infrared GC, A_V= 6.2±0.3, which together with its central direction and enhanced contamination explains why it has so far been overlooked.