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Register a new userDiscovery of Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
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We have discovered nine ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) in the Virgo Cluster, extending samples of these objects outside the Fornax Cluster. Using the 2dF multi-fiber spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope, the new Virgo members were found among 1500 color-selected, star-like targets with 16.0 < b_j < 20.2 in a two-degree diameter field centered on M87 (NGC4486). The newly-found UCDs are comparable to the UCDs in the Fornax Cluster, with sizes <~ 100 pc, -12.9 < M_B < -10.7, and exhibiting red, absorption-line spectra, indicative of an older stellar population. The properties of these objects remain consistent with the tidal threshing model for the origin of UCDs from the surviving nuclei of nucleated dwarf ellipticals disrupted in the cluster core, but can also be explained as objects that were formed by mergers of star clusters created in galaxy interactions. The discovery that UCDs exist in Virgo shows that this galaxy type is probably a ubiquitous phenomenon in clusters of galaxies; coupled with their possible origin by tidal threshing, the UCD population is a potential indicator and probe of the formation history of a given cluster. We also describe one additional bright UCD with M_B = -12.0 in the core of the Fornax Cluster. We find no further UCDs in our Fornax Cluster Spectroscopic Survey down to b_j = 19.5 in two additional 2dF fields extending as far as 3 degrees from the center of the cluster. All six Fornax bright UCDs identified with 2dF lie within 0.5 degree (projected distance of 170 kpc) of the central elliptical galaxy NGC1399.
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We present new imaging and spectroscopic observations of six ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, along with re-analysed data for five Fornax Cluster UCDs. These are the most luminous UCDs: -14<Mv<-12 mag. Our HST imaging shows that most of the UCDs have shallow or steep cusps in their cores; only one UCD has a flat ``King core. None of the UCDs show tidal cutoffs down to our limiting surface brightness. Spectroscopic analysis shows that Virgo UCDs are older than 8 Gyr and have metallicities in the range [Z/H]=-1.35...+0.35 dex. Five Virgo UCDs have super-solar alpha/Fe abundance ratios typical of old stellar populations found in globular clusters and elliptical galaxies. Virgo UCDs have structural and dynamical properties similar to Fornax UCDs. The Virgo and Fornax UCDs all have masses ~2-9x10^7 Msun and mass-to-light ratios ~3-5 Msun/Lsun,v. The dynamical M/L values for Virgo UCDs are consistent with SSP model predictions: Virgo UCDs do not require dark matter to explain their mass-to-light ratios. We conclude that the internal properties of Virgo UCDs are consistent with them being the high-mass/high-luminosity extreme of known globular cluster populations. We refrain from any firm conclusions on Fornax UCD origins until accurate age, metallicity and alpha-abundance estimates are obtained for them. Some of our results, notably the fundamental plane projections are consistent with the formation of UCDs by the simple removal of the halo from the nuclei of nucleated dwarf galaxies. However the ages, metallicities and abundances for Virgo UCDs are not consistent with this simple stripping model. It might be consistent with more sophisticated models of the stripping process that include the effects of gas removal on the chemical evolution of the nuclei.
We present a study of ultra compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies in the Virgo cluster based mainly on imaging from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). Using $sim$100 deg$^{2}$ of $u^*giz$ imaging, we have identified more than 600 candidate UCDs, from the core of Virgo out to its virial radius. Candidates have been selected through a combination of magnitudes, ellipticities, colors, surface brightnesses, half-light radii and, when available, radial velocities. Candidates were also visually validated from deep NGVS images. Subsamples of varying completeness and purity have been defined to explore the properties of UCDs and compare to those of globular clusters and the nuclei of dwarf galaxies with the aim of delineating the nature and origins of UCDs. From a surface density map, we find the UCDs to be mostly concentrated within Virgos main subclusters, around its brightest galaxies. We identify several subsamples of UCDs -- i.e., the brightest, largest, and those with the most pronounced and/or asymmetric envelopes -- that could hold clues to the origin of UCDs and possible evolutionary links with dwarf nuclei. We find some evidence for such a connection from the existence of diffuse envelopes around some UCDs, and comparisons of radial distributions of UCDs and nucleated galaxies within the cluster.
We report on the properties of the most massive ultra-compact dwarf galaxy (UCD) in the nearby Virgo Cluster of galaxies using imaging from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) and spectroscopy from Keck/DEIMOS. This object (M59-UCD3) appears to be associated with the massive Virgo galaxy M59 (NGC 4621), has an integrated velocity dispersion of 78 km/s, a dynamical mass of $3.7times10^8 M_odot$, and an effective radius ($R_e$) of 25 pc. With an effective surface mass density of $9.4times10^{10} M_odot/kpc^2$, it is the densest galaxy in the local Universe discovered to date, surpassing the density of the luminous Virgo UCD, M60-UCD1. M59-UCD3 has a total luminosity of $M_{g}=-14.2$ mag, and a spectral energy distribution consistent with an old (14 Gyr) stellar population with [Fe/H]=0.0 and [$alpha$/Fe]=+0.2. We also examine deep imaging around M59 and find a broad low surface brightness stream pointing towards M59-UCD3, which may represent a tidal remnant of the UCD progenitor. This UCD, along with similar objects like M60-UCD1 and M59cO, likely represents an extreme population of tidally stripped galaxies more akin to larger and more massive compact early-type galaxies than to nuclear star clusters in present-day dwarf galaxies.
By utilising the large multi-plexing advantage of the 2dF spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope, we have been able to obtain a complete spectroscopic sample of all objects in a predefined magnitude range, 16.5<Bj<19.7, regardless of morphology, in an area towards the centre of the Fornax Cluster of galaxies. Among the unresolved or marginally resolved targets we have found five objects which are actually at the redshift of the Fornax Cluster, i.e. they are extremely compact dwarf galaxies or extremely large star clusters. All five have absorption line spectra. With intrinsic sizes less than 1.1 arc second HWHM (corresponding to approximately 100 pc at the distance of the cluster), they are more compact and significantly less luminous than other known compact dwarf galaxies, yet much brighter than any globular cluster. In this letter we present new ground based optical observations of these enigmatic objects. In addition to having extremely high central surface brightnesses, these objects show no evidence of any surrounding low surface brightness envelopes down to much fainter limits than is the case for, e.g., nucleated dwarf ellipticals. Thus, if they are not merely the stripped remains of some other type of galaxy, then they appear to have properties unlike any previously known type of stellar system.
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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