Whiting 1: A new halo young globular cluster

We report on BVI CCD photometry of a field centered in the region of the Galactic star cluster Whiting 1 down to V = 23.0. This cluster has never been studied insofar, and we provide for the first time estimates of its fundamental parameters, namely, radial extent, age, distance, and reddening. Whiting 1 turns out to be a compact star cluster with a diameter of about 1'. We find that the cluster is about 5 Gyr old and has a probable metal abundance around [Fe/H] = -1.20. Its position at b = -60.degrees64 and at a heliocentric distance of about 45 kpc makes the cluster a rather strange object, surely not a disk old open cluster, but perhaps the youngest halo globular cluster insofar known.