THE OPTICAL GRAVITATIONAL LENSING EXPERIMENT - VARIABLE-STARS IN THE SAGITTARIUS DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY

We present time-series CCD photometry of a field in the newly discovered dwarf spheroidal galaxy in Sagittarius (hereafter Sgr), and of a nearby control field. These data, which consist of VI images obtained during the 1994 OGLE season, were used to identify and study variable stars in both fields. We discovered ten variable stars in the Sgr field, nine of which have light curves and periods consistent with RR Lyr stars or anomalous Cepheids. The control field contains four short-period contact eclipsing binaries, but no pulsating variables. The variables in the Sgr field include a bright RR Lyr star that is almost certainly located in front of Sgr in the galactic bulge, a short-period contact binary located near or within Sgr, and a short-period pulsating star that may either be a foreground halo RR Lyr star or an anomalous Cepheid within Sgr. The seven remaining variables in the Sgr field are RR Lyr stars with very similar mean apparent magnitudes; we conclude that they are members of Sgr. We estimate the total number of RR Lyr stars in Sgr to be 1930+/-730 if M(V,Sgr) = -13, or 310+/-120 if M(V,Sgr) = -11. The frequency of pulsating variables in Sgr is consistent with earlier conclusions that the galaxy consists of a predominant old (age greater than or similar to 10 Gyr) population. (C) 1995 American Astronomical Society.