Evidence for a warm interstellar medium in Fornax dwarf elliptical galaxies - II. FCC032, FCC206 and FCCB729
- Autor(en)
- Dolf Michielsen, Sven de Rijcke, Werner Zeilinger, Philippe Prugniel, Herwig B. Dejonghe, Sarah Roberts
- Abstrakt
We present R-band and Ha+[N II] narrow-band imaging of FCC032, FCC206 and FCCB729, three dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) in the Fornax cluster. These dEs contain significant amounts of ionized gas. FCC032 harbours a large ionized gas complex, consisting of several individual clouds, a superbubble and a filament that extends away from the galaxy centre. The ionized gas structures observed in FCC032 bear a strong resemblance to those observed in more gas-rich and more fiercely star-forming dwarf galaxies. FCC206, a very low surface brightness dE, contains one faint extended emission region and two compact clouds. In FCCB729, the only nucleated galaxy in this sample, one of the ionized gas clouds coincides with the stellar nucleus. We derive ionized gas masses of a few 102 to 103 M? for these galaxies. This brings our sample of dEs with ionized gas with Ha+[N II] narrow-band imaging to five objects. The ionized gas morphologies in these galaxies range from pure nuclear emission peaks to extended emission complexes. This morphological diversity could also indicate a diversity in ionizing processes in dEs with a warm interstellar medium (active galactic nuclei, starbursts, post-asymptotic giant branch stars, etc.). Inside FCC206, four star clusters appear to be on the verge of merging to form a nucleus in this presently non-nucleated dE. Understanding the formation of nuclei in dEs could give us important clues to the formation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs).
- Organisation(en)
- Institut für Astrophysik
- Externe Organisation(en)
- University of Nottingham, Ghent University , Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, Cardiff University
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Band
- 353
- Seiten
- 1293-1303
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 11
- ISSN
- 0035-8711
- Publikationsdatum
- 2004
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 103003 Astronomie
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/0f80282b-e15c-4053-af4b-d4a7aed43a7d