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Gaseous Disks in Elliptical Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

G. Bertin
Affiliation:
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
F. Bertola
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Padova, Italy
L.M. Buson
Affiliation:
Osservatorio Astronomico, Padova, Italy
J. Danziger
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Garching, FRG
H. Dejonghe
Affiliation:
RUG Observatorium, Gent, Belgium
E.M. Sadler
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, Epping, Australia
R.P. Saglia
Affiliation:
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
M. Vietri
Affiliation:
Osservatorio Astronomico, M. Porzio, Italy
T. de Zeeuw
Affiliation:
Theoretical Astrophysics, Caltech, Pasadena, USA
W. W. Zeilinger
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Garching, FRG

Extract

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A powerful way to measure the mass distribution in elliptical galaxies is to study systems with a central disk of ionized gas. Such disks occur in a small fraction (perhaps 10–20%) of nearby ellipticals, and the gas is generally believed to have been accreted from outside the galaxy as the result of a merger or interaction. Once the gas disk has settled into a principal plane of the stellar figure, measurements of its orientation and kinematics set strong constraints on the shape and orientation of the galaxy and allow us to derive M/L as a function of radius. Indeed, the observations discussed here were made at the ESO/MPI 2.2-m telescope as part of our ESO KEY-PROGRAMME, in which we aim to determine the mass-to-light ratios of nearby elliptical galaxies and examine the evidence for dark matter.

Type
II- Early-type and Irregular Galaxies
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991