About the linearity of the color-magnitude relation of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster

We revisit the color–magnitude relation of Virgo Cluster early-type galaxies in order to explore its alleged nonlinearity. To this aim, we reanalyze the relation already published from data obtained within the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey of the Hubble Space Telescope and perform our own photometry and...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Smith Castelli, Analia Viviana, Gonzalez, Nelida Mabel, Faifer, Favio Raúl, Forte, Juan Carlos
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:Argentina
Recursos:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/11236
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/11236
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Galaxeis
Clusters
Virgo
Dwarf
Elliptical galaxies
Lenticular galaxies
Photometry
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descrição
Resumo:We revisit the color–magnitude relation of Virgo Cluster early-type galaxies in order to explore its alleged nonlinearity. To this aim, we reanalyze the relation already published from data obtained within the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey of the Hubble Space Telescope and perform our own photometry and analysis of the images of 100 early-type galaxies observed as part of this survey. In addition, we compare our results with those reported in the literature from data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We have found that when the brightest galaxies and untypical systems are excluded from the sample, a linear relation arises in agreement with what is observed in other groups and clusters. The central regions of the brightest galaxies also follow this relation. In addition, we notice that Virgo contains at least four compact elliptical galaxies besides the well-known object VCC 1297 (NGC 4486B). Their locations in the μeff –luminosity diagram define a trend different from that followed by normal early-type dwarf galaxies, setting an upper limit in effective surface brightness and a lower limit in the effective radius for their luminosities. Based on the distribution of different galaxy sub-samples in the color–magnitude and μeff –luminosity diagrams, we draw some conclusions on their formation and the history of their evolution.