BV time series in Ursa Major II

Our photometry goes down to about 2 mag below the Galaxy's main-sequence turnoff that we detected at V~21.5 mag. We have discovered a bona fide RR Lyrae variable star in UMa II, which we use to estimate a conservative dereddened distance modulus for the galaxy of (m-M)_0_=17.70+/-0.04+/-0.12mag, where the first error accounts for the uncertainties of the calibrated photometry, and the second reflects our lack of information on the metallicity of the star.

The corresponding distance to UMa II is 34.7^+0.6^_-0.7_(^+2.0^_-1.9_)kpc. Our photometry shows evidence of a spread in the Galaxy's subgiant branch, compatible with a spread in metal abundance in the range between Z=0.0001 and Z=0.001. Based on our estimate of the distance, a comparison of the fiducial lines of the Galactic globular clusters M68 and M5 ([Fe/H]=-2.27+/-0.04 dex and -1.33+/-0.02 dex, respectively), with the position on the CMD of spectroscopically confirmed Galaxy members, may suggest the existence of stellar populations of different metal abundance/age in the central region of UMa II.