Stellar halo of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A)

We present a new calibration of the WFC3 F606W + F814W photometry to the ground-based VI photometric system. The photometry shows that the stellar halo of NGC 5128 is dominated by old RGB stars that are present in all fields. The V-band surface brightness of fields changes from 23 to 32mag/arcsec^2^ between the innermost field only 8.3kpc from the galaxy center to our outermost halo fields, which are located 140 kpc away from the center along the major axis and 92 kpc along the minor axis.

Within the inner ~30kpc, we also find evidence for a 2-3Gyr old population traced by asymptotic giant branch stars that are brighter than the tip of the RGB. This population contributes only up to 10% in total stellar mass if it is 2Gyr old, but a larger fraction of 30-40% is required if its age is 3Gyr. The stellar surface density profile is well fit by a classic r^1/4^ curve or a simple power-law form ~r^-3.1^ over the full radial range, with no obvious break in the slope, but with large field-to-field scatter.

The ellipticity measured from integrated-light photometry in the inner parts, e=(b/a)=0.77, flattens to e=0.54+/-0.02 beyond 30kpc. Considering the flattening of the outer halo, the projection of the elliptical isophote on the semimajor axis for our most distant field reaches nearly 30 effective radii.