Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-08T07:17:36.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Compact Stellar Systems in the Fornax Cluster: Super-massive Star Clusters or Extremely Compact Dwarf Galaxies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

M. J. Drinkwater ,
J. B. Jones ,
M. D. Gregg  and
S. Phillipps
M. J. Drinkwater
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia; m.drinkwater@physics.unimelb.edu.au
J. B. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL, UK; B.Jones@bristol.ac.uk
M. D. Gregg
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, and Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-413, Livermore, CA 94550, USA; gregg@igpp.ucllnl.org
S. Phillipps
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL, UK; S.Phillipps@bristol.ac.uk
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We describe a population of compact objects in the centre of the Fornax Cluster which were discovered as part of our 2dF Fornax Spectroscopic Survey. These objects have spectra typical of old stellar systems, but are unresolved on photographic sky survey plates. They have absolute magnitudes −13 < MB < −11, so they are 10 times more luminous than any Galactic globular clusters, but fainter than any known compact dwarf galaxies. These objects are all within 30 arcminutes of the central galaxy of the cluster, NGC 1399, but are distributed over larger radii than the globular cluster system of that galaxy. We suggest that these objects are either super-massive star clusters (intra-cluster globular clusters or tidally stripped nuclei of dwarf galaxies) or a new type of low-luminosity, compact elliptical dwarf (‘M32-type”) galaxy. The best way to test these hypotheses will be to obtain high-resolution imaging and high-dispersion spectroscopy to determine their structures and mass-to-light ratios. This will allow us to compare them to known compact objects and establish whether they represent a new class of hitherto unknown stellar system.

Keywords

galaxies: star clustersgalaxies: dwarfgalaxies: formation
Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , 2000 , pp. 227 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2000

References

Caldwell, N., Armandroff, T. E., Seitzer, P., & Da Costa, G. S. 1992, AJ, 103, 840 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bassino, L. P., Muzzio, J. C., & Rabolli, M. 1994, ApJ, 431, 634 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binggeli, B., & Cameron, L. M. 1991, A&A, 252, 27 Google Scholar
Bridges, T. J., Hanes, D. A., & Harris, W. E. 1991, AJ, 101, 469 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bureau, M., Mould, J. R., & Staveley-Smith, L. 1996, ApJ, 463, 60 Google Scholar
Carignan, C., & Freeman, K. C. 1988, ApJ, 332, L33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drinkwater, M. J., & Gregg, M. D. 1998, MNRAS, 296, L15 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drinkwater, M. J., Gregg, M. D., & Holman, B. A. 1997, in The Second Stromlo Symposium: The Nature of Elliptical Galaxies, ASP Conf. Ser. 116, ed. M. Arnaboldi, G. S. Da Costa & P. Saha (San Francisco: ASP), p. 287 Google Scholar
Drinkwater, M. J., Phillipps, S., Gregg, M. D., Parker, Q. A., Smith, R. M., Davies, J. I., Jones, J. B., & Sadler, E. M. 1999, ApJ, 511, L97 Google Scholar
Drinkwater, M. J., Phillipps, S., Jones, J. B., Gregg, M. D., Deady, J. H., Davies, J. I., Parker, Q. A., Sadler, E. M., & Smith, R. M. 2000, A&A, 355, 900 Google Scholar
Ferguson, H. C. 1989, AJ, 98, 367 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, H. C., & Binggeli, B. 1994, A&AR, 6, 67 Google Scholar
Forbes, D. A., Grillmair, C. J., Williger, G. M., Elson, R. A. W., & Brodie, J. P. 1998, MNRAS, 293, 325 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grillmair, C. J., Freeman, K. C., Bicknell, G. V., Carter, D., Couch, W. J., Sommer-Larsen, J., & Taylor, K. 1994, ApJ, 422, L9 Google Scholar
Harris, W. E. 1996, AJ, 112, 1487 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilker, M., Infante, L., Vieira, G., Kissler-Patig, M., & Richtler, T. 1999, A&AS, 134, 75 Google Scholar
Illingworth, G., & Illingworth, W. 1976, ApJS, 30, 227 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, G. H., Hunter, D. A., & Christian, C. A. 1984, ApJS, 56, 257 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, J. E., & Jones, B. J. T. 1980, MNRAS, 191, 685 Google Scholar
Kissler-Patig, M., Grillmair, C. J., Meylan, G., Brodie, J. P., Minniti, D., & Goudfrooij, P. 1999, AJ, 117, 1206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mateo, M. 1998, ARA&A, 36, 435 Google Scholar
Minniti, D., Kissler-Patig, M., Goudfrooij, P., & Meylan, G. 1998, AJ, 115, 121 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, L. A., Cormack, W., Paterson, M., Beard, S., & Lawrence, L. 1992, in Digitised Optical Sky Surveys, ed. H. T. MacGillivray & E. B. Thomson (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p 133 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, B., Governato, F., Quinn, T., Stadel, J., & Lake, G. 1998, ApJ, 499, L5 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, M. J., Cote, P., Jones, C., Forman, W., & Marzke, R. O. 1995, ApJ, 453, L77 CrossRefGoogle Scholar