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Register a new userUltra-Compact Dwarfs in the Coma Cluster
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We have undertaken a spectroscopic search for ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) in the dense core of the dynamically evolved, massive Coma cluster as part of the HST/ACS Coma Cluster Treasury Survey. UCD candidates were initially chosen based on color, magnitude, degree of resolution within the ACS images, and the known properties of Fornax and Virgo UCDs. Follow-up spectroscopy with Keck/LRIS confirmed 27 candidates as members of the Coma Cluster, a success rate > 60% for targeted objects brighter than M_R = -12. Another 14 candidates may also prove to be Coma members, but low signal-to-noise spectra prevent definitive conclusions. An investigation of the properties and distribution of the Coma UCDs finds these objects to be very similar to UCDs discovered in other environments. The Coma UCDs tend to be clustered around giant galaxies in the cluster core and have colors/metallicity that correlate with the host galaxy. With properties and a distribution similar to that of the Coma cluster globular cluster population, we find strong support for a star cluster origin for the majority of the Coma UCDs. However, a few UCDs appear to have stellar population or structural properties which differentiate them from the old star cluster populations found in the Coma cluster, perhaps indicating that UCDs may form through multiple formation channels.
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We have discovered both a red and a blue subpopulation of Ultra-Compact Dwarf (UCD) galaxy candidates in the Coma galaxy cluster. We analyzed deep F475W (Sloan g) and F814W (I) Hubble Space Telescope images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys Wide Field Channel as part of the Coma Cluster Treasury Survey and have fitted the light profiles of ~5000 point-like sources in the vicinity of NGC 4874, one of the two central dominant galaxies of the Coma cluster. Although almost all of these sources are globular clusters that remain unresolved, we found that 52 objects have effective radii between ~10 and 66 pc, in the range spanned by Dwarf Globular Transition Objects (DGTO) and UCDs. Of these 52 compact objects, 25 are brighter than M_V ~-11 mag, a magnitude conventionally thought to separate UCDs and globular clusters. The UCD/DGTO candidates have the same color and luminosity distribution as the most luminous globular clusters within the red and blue subpopulations of the immensely rich NGC 4874 globular cluster system. Unlike standard globular clusters, blue and red UCD/DGTO subpopulations have the same median effective radius. The spatial distribution of UCD/DGTO candidates reveal that they congregate towards NGC 4874, and are not uniformly distributed. We find a relative deficit of UCD/DGTOs compared with globular clusters in the inner 15 kpc around NGC 4874, however at larger radii UCD/DGTO and globular clusters follow the same spatial distribution.
We present the first compact stellar systems with luminosities in the range of ultra-compact dwarfs (UCDs), discovered in the Antlia galaxy cluster (-10.5 < M_V < -11.6). The magnitude limit between UCDs and globular clusters (CGs) is discussed. By means of imaging from VLT (FORS1), CTIO (MOSAIC), and the HST (ACS) archive, eleven UCDs/bright GCs are selected on the basis of photometry and confirmed as Antlia members through radial velocities measured on new GEMINI (GMOS-S) spectra. In addition, nine UCD candidates are identified taking into account properties derived from their surface brightness profiles. All of them, members and candidates, are located in the proximity of NGC,3258, one of the two brightest elliptical galaxies in the cluster core. Antlia UCDs in this sample present absolute magnitudes fainter than M_V ~ -11.6 mag and most of them have colours within the blue GC range, falling only two within the red GC range. Effective radii measured for the ones lying on the ACS field are in the range R_eff = 3 - 11 pc and are similar to equivalent objects in other clusters, obtained from the literature. The UCD sample shares the same behaviour on the size-luminosity plane: a linear relation between R_eff and M_V is present for UCDs brighter than M_V ~ -10.5 - -11 mag while no trend is detected for fainter ones, that have an approximately constant R_eff. The projected spatial distribution of UCDs, GCs and X-ray emission points to an ongoing merger between two Antlia groups, dominated by NGC 3258 and NGC 3268. Nuclei of dwarf elliptical galaxies and blue UCDs share the same locus on the colour-magnitude diagram, supporting the hypothesis that some blue UCDs may be remnants of stripped nucleated dwarfs.
The HST ACS Coma Cluster Treasury Survey is a deep two passband imaging survey of the nearest very rich cluster of galaxies, covering a range of galaxy density environments. The imaging is complemented by a recent wide field redshift survey of the cluster conducted with Hectospec on the 6.5m MMT. Among the many scientific applications for this data are the search for compact galaxies. In this paper, we present the discovery of seven compact (but quite luminous) stellar systems, ranging from M32-like galaxies down to ultra-compact dwarfs (UCDs)/dwarf to globular transition objects (DGTOs). We find that all seven compact galaxies require a two-component fit to their light profile and have measured velocity dispersions that exceed those expected for typical early-type galaxies at their luminosity. From our structural parameter analysis we conclude that three of the sample should be classified as compact ellipticals or M32-like galaxies, the remaining four being less extreme systems. The three compact ellipticals are all found to have old luminosity weighted ages (> 12 Gyr), intermediate metallicities (-0.6 < [Fe/H] < -0.1) and high [Mg/Fe] (> 0.25). Our findings support a tidal stripping scenario as the formation mode of compact galaxies covering the luminosity range studied here. We speculate that at least two early-type morphologies may serve as the progenitor of compact galaxies in clusters.
We present the results of a Keck/DEIMOS survey of Ultra Compact Dwarfs (UCDs) in the Perseus Cluster core. We confirm cluster membership for 14 UCDs, with radial velocities ~5300 km s$^{-1}$. Two of these confirmed Perseus UCDs have extremely blue colours ($B-R < 0.6$ mag), reside in star forming filaments surrounding NGC 1275, and have likely formed as massive star clusters in the last ~100 Myr. We also measure a central velocity dispersion of a third, UCD13 ($sigma_0 = 38 pm 8$ km s$^{-1}$), the most extended UCD in our sample. We determine it to have radius $R_{e} = 85 pm 1.1$ pc, a dynamical mass of ($2.3 pm 0.8)times10^{8}$ M$_{odot}$, and a metallicity [Z/H]$= -0.52^{+0.33}_{-0.29}$ dex. UCD13 and the clusters central galaxy, NGC 1275, have a projected separation of 30 kpc and a radial velocity difference of ~20 km s$^{-1}$. Based on its size, red colour, internal velocity dispersion, dynamical mass, metallicity and proximity to NGC 1275, we argue that UCD13 is likely the remnant nucleus of a tidally stripped dE, with this progenitor dE having $M_{B} approx -16$ mag and mass $sim10^{9}$ M$_{odot}$.
We present preliminary results of the search for Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in the central region of the Antlia cluster. This new kind of stellar system has brightness, mass and size between those observed in globular clusters and early-type dwarf galaxies, but their origin is not well understood yet.
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