2017ApJ...847...88Z

Following the earlier discovery of classical Cepheid variables in the Sculptor Group spiral galaxy NGC 7793 from an optical wide-field imaging survey, we have performed deep near-infrared J- and K-band follow-up photometry of a subsample of these Cepheids to derive the distance to this galaxy with a higher accuracy than what was possible from optical photometry alone, by minimizing the effects of reddening and metallicity on the distance result. Combining our new near-infrared period-luminosity relations with previous optical photometry, we obtain a true distance modulus to NGC 7793 of (27.66 ± 0.04) mag (statistical) ±0.07 mag (systematic), i.e., a distance of (3.40 ± 0.17) Mpc. We also determine the mean reddening affecting the Cepheids to be E(B - V) = (0.08 ± 0.02) mag, demonstrating that there is significant dust extinction intrinsic to the galaxy in addition to the small foreground extinction. A comparison of the new, improved Cepheid distance to earlier distance determinations of NGC 7793 from the Tully-Fisher and TRGB methods is in agreement within the reported uncertainties of these previous measurements.