Contents
Images
Upload your image
DSS Images Other Images
Related articles
The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: on the natural subdivision of galaxies
The distribution of global photometric, spectroscopic, structural andmorphological parameters for a well-defined sample of 350 nearbygalaxies has been examined. The usual trends were recovereddemonstrating that E/S0 galaxies are redder, more quiescent, morecentrally concentrated and possess larger Sérsic indices thanlate-type galaxies.Multivariate statistical analyses were performed to examine thedistribution of all parameters simultaneously. The main result of theseanalyses was the existence of only two classes of galaxies,corresponding closely to early and late types. Linear discriminantanalysis (LDA) was able to reproduce the classifications of early- andlate-type galaxies with high success, but further refinement of galaxytypes was not reproduced in the distribution of observed galaxyproperties. A principal components analysis (PCA) showed that the majorvariance of the parameter set corresponded to a distinction betweenearly and late types, highlighting the importance of the distinction. Ahierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) revealed only two clear naturalclasses within the parameter set, closely corresponding to early andlate types. Early and late types are clearly distinct and thedistinction is of fundamental importance. In contrast, late types fromSa to Irr are smoothly distributed throughout the parameter space.A population of galaxies classified by eye as elliptical/lenticular, andexhibiting concentration indices similar to early types were found tohave a significant star formation activity. These galaxies arepreferentially faint, suggesting they are low-mass systems.
| Optical and Near-Infrared Color Profiles in Nearby Early-Type Galaxies and the Implied Age and Metallicity Gradients
We present results of an age and metallicity gradient analysis inferredfrom both optical and near-infrared surface photometry. The analysis isbased on a sample of 36 nearby early-type galaxies, obtained from theEarly Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Two MicronAll Sky Survey. Surface brightness profiles were derived in each bandand used to study the color gradients of the galaxies. Using simplestellar population models with both optical and near-infrared colors, wemay interpret the color gradients in terms of age and metallicitygradients of galaxies. UsinggZ≡dlogZmet/dlogR andgA=dlog(age)/dlogR to represent the metallicity and agegradients, we found a median value of gZ=-0.25+/-0.03 for themetallicity gradient, with a dispersionσgZ=0.19+/-0.02. The corresponding valuesfor the age gradients were gA=0.02+/-0.04 andσgA=0.25+/-0.03. These results are in goodagreement with recent observational results, as well as with recentsimulations that suggest that both monolithic collapse and major mergershave played important roles in the formation of early-type galaxies. Ourresults demonstrate the potential of using multi-wave band colorsobtained from current and future optical and infrared surveys inconstraining the age and metallicity gradients of early-type galaxies.
| The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: 16 <=BMGC < 24 galaxy counts and the calibration of the local galaxy luminosity function
The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) is a 37.5 deg2,medium-deep, B-band imaging survey along the celestial equator, takenwith the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope. The surveyregion is contained within the regions of both the Two Degree FieldGalaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey EarlyData Release (SDSS-EDR). The survey has a uniform isophotal detectionlimit of 26 mag arcsec-2 and it provides a robust,well-defined catalogue of stars and galaxies in the range 16<=BMGC < 24 mag.Here we describe the survey strategy, the photometric and astrometriccalibration, source detection and analysis, and present the galaxynumber counts that connect the bright and faint galaxy populationswithin a single survey. We argue that these counts represent the stateof the art and use them to constrain the normalizations (φ*) of anumber of recent estimates of the local galaxy luminosity function. Wefind that the 2dFGRS, SDSS Commissioning Data (CD), ESO Slice Project,Century Survey, Durham/UKST, Mt Stromlo/APM, SSRS2 and NOG luminosityfunctions require a revision of their published φ* values by factorsof 1.05 +/- 0.05, 0.76 +/- 0.10, 1.02 +/- 0.22, 1.02 +/- 0.16, 1.16 +/-0.28, 1.75 +/- 0.37, 1.40 +/- 0.26 and 1.01 +/- 0.39, respectively.After renormalizing the galaxy luminosity functions we find a mean localbJ luminosity density of .1
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data
We present central velocity dispersions and Mg2 line indicesfor an all-sky sample of ~1178 elliptical and S0 galaxies, of which 984had no previous measures. This sample contains the largest set ofhomogeneous spectroscopic data for a uniform sample of ellipticalgalaxies in the nearby universe. These galaxies were observed as part ofthe ENEAR project, designed to study the peculiar motions and internalproperties of the local early-type galaxies. Using 523 repeatedobservations of 317 galaxies obtained during different runs, the dataare brought to a common zero point. These multiple observations, takenduring the many runs and different instrumental setups employed for thisproject, are used to derive statistical corrections to the data and arefound to be relatively small, typically <~5% of the velocitydispersion and 0.01 mag in the Mg2 line strength. Typicalerrors are about 8% in velocity dispersion and 0.01 mag inMg2, in good agreement with values published elsewhere.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture Photometry
We present R-band CCD photometry for 1332 early-type galaxies, observedas part of the ENEAR survey of peculiar motions using early-typegalaxies in the nearby universe. Circular apertures are used to tracethe surface brightness profiles, which are then fitted by atwo-component bulge-disk model. From the fits, we obtain the structuralparameters required to estimate galaxy distances using theDn-σ and fundamental plane relations. We find thatabout 12% of the galaxies are well represented by a pure r1/4law, while 87% are best fitted by a two-component model. There are 356repeated observations of 257 galaxies obtained during different runsthat are used to derive statistical corrections and bring the data to acommon system. We also use these repeated observations to estimate ourinternal errors. The accuracy of our measurements are tested by thecomparison of 354 galaxies in common with other authors. Typical errorsin our measurements are 0.011 dex for logDn, 0.064 dex forlogre, 0.086 mag arcsec-2 for<μe>, and 0.09 for mRC,comparable to those estimated by other authors. The photometric datareported here represent one of the largest high-quality and uniformall-sky samples currently available for early-type galaxies in thenearby universe, especially suitable for peculiar motion studies.Based on observations at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO),National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., undercooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF);European Southern Observatory (ESO); Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory(FLWO); and the MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak.
| A new catalogue of ISM content of normal galaxies
We have compiled a catalogue of the gas content for a sample of 1916galaxies, considered to be a fair representation of ``normality''. Thedefinition of a ``normal'' galaxy adopted in this work implies that wehave purposely excluded from the catalogue galaxies having distortedmorphology (such as interaction bridges, tails or lopsidedness) and/orany signature of peculiar kinematics (such as polar rings,counterrotating disks or other decoupled components). In contrast, wehave included systems hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) in thecatalogue. This catalogue revises previous compendia on the ISM contentof galaxies published by \citet{bregman} and \citet{casoli}, andcompiles data available in the literature from several small samples ofgalaxies. Masses for warm dust, atomic and molecular gas, as well asX-ray luminosities have been converted to a uniform distance scale takenfrom the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC). We have used twodifferent normalization factors to explore the variation of the gascontent along the Hubble sequence: the blue luminosity (LB)and the square of linear diameter (D225). Ourcatalogue significantly improves the statistics of previous referencecatalogues and can be used in future studies to define a template ISMcontent for ``normal'' galaxies along the Hubble sequence. The cataloguecan be accessed on-line and is also available at the Centre desDonnées Stellaires (CDS).The catalogue is available in electronic form athttp://dipastro.pd.astro.it/galletta/ismcat and at the CDS via anonymousftp to\ cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via\http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/405/5
| Nearby Optical Galaxies: Selection of the Sample and Identification of Groups
In this paper we describe the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, whichis a complete, distance-limited (cz<=6000 km s-1) andmagnitude-limited (B<=14) sample of ~7000 optical galaxies. Thesample covers 2/3 (8.27 sr) of the sky (|b|>20deg) andappears to have a good completeness in redshift (97%). We select thesample on the basis of homogenized corrected total blue magnitudes inorder to minimize systematic effects in galaxy sampling. We identify thegroups in this sample by means of both the hierarchical and thepercolation ``friends-of-friends'' methods. The resulting catalogs ofloose groups appear to be similar and are among the largest catalogs ofgroups currently available. Most of the NOG galaxies (~60%) are found tobe members of galaxy pairs (~580 pairs for a total of ~15% of objects)or groups with at least three members (~500 groups for a total of ~45%of objects). About 40% of galaxies are left ungrouped (field galaxies).We illustrate the main features of the NOG galaxy distribution. Comparedto previous optical and IRAS galaxy samples, the NOG provides a densersampling of the galaxy distribution in the nearby universe. Given itslarge sky coverage, the identification of groups, and its high-densitysampling, the NOG is suited to the analysis of the galaxy density fieldof the nearby universe, especially on small scales.
| Arcsecond Positions of UGC Galaxies
We present accurate B1950 and J2000 positions for all confirmed galaxiesin the Uppsala General Catalog (UGC). The positions were measuredvisually from Digitized Sky Survey images with rms uncertaintiesσ<=[(1.2")2+(θ/100)2]1/2,where θ is the major-axis diameter. We compared each galaxymeasured with the original UGC description to ensure high reliability.The full position list is available in the electronic version only.
| UBVRI photometry of the Durham-AAT redshift survey
Using the PDS microdensitometer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, wehave acquired U, B, V, R and I surface photometry from UK Schmidtphotographic plates for all the galaxies with measured redshifts in theDurham-AAT redshift survey. By comparison with CCD photometry we showthat such precision photographic photometry of galaxies off IIIaemulsions is capable of an accuracy as good as a few hundredths of amagnitude. We discuss the color-related properties of these galaxies,and derive luminosity functions in each waveband. We show that, whendivided by color, the faint-end slope of the luminosity function of thebluer galaxies is significantly steeper than that for the redder ones.
| Total magnitude, radius, colour indices, colour gradients and photometric type of galaxies
We present a catalogue of aperture photometry of galaxies, in UBVRI,assembled from three different origins: (i) an update of the catalogueof Buta et al. (1995) (ii) published photometric profiles and (iii)aperture photometry performed on CCD images. We explored different setsof growth curves to fit these data: (i) The Sersic law, (ii) The net ofgrowth curves used for the preparation of the RC3 and (iii) A linearinterpolation between the de Vaucouleurs (r(1/4) ) and exponential laws.Finally we adopted the latter solution. Fitting these growth curves, wederive (1) the total magnitude, (2) the effective radius, (3) the colourindices and (4) gradients and (5) the photometric type of 5169 galaxies.The photometric type is defined to statistically match the revisedmorphologic type and parametrizes the shape of the growth curve. It iscoded from -9, for very concentrated galaxies, to +10, for diffusegalaxies. Based in part on observations collected at the Haute-ProvenceObservatory.
| An image database. II. Catalogue between δ=-30deg and δ=70deg.
A preliminary list of 68.040 galaxies was built from extraction of35.841 digitized images of the Palomar Sky Survey (Paper I). For eachgalaxy, the basic parameters are obtained: coordinates, diameter, axisratio, total magnitude, position angle. On this preliminary list, weapply severe selection rules to get a catalog of 28.000 galaxies, wellidentified and well documented. For each parameter, a comparison is madewith standard measurements. The accuracy of the raw photometricparameters is quite good despite of the simplicity of the method.Without any local correction, the standard error on the total magnitudeis about 0.5 magnitude up to a total magnitude of B_T_=17. Significantsecondary effects are detected concerning the magnitudes: distance toplate center effect and air-mass effect.
| A comparative study of morphological classifications of APM galaxies
We investigate the consistency of visual morphological classificationsof galaxies by comparing classifications for 831 galaxies from sixindependent observers. The galaxies were classified on laser print copyimages or on computer screen using scans made with the Automated PlateMeasuring (APM) machine. Classifications are compared using the RevisedHubble numerical type index T. We find that individual observers agreewith one another with rms combined dispersions of between 1.3 and 2.3type units, typically about 1.8 units. The dispersions tend to decreaseslightly with increasing angular diameter and, in some cases, withincreasing axial ratio (b/a). The agreement between independentobservers is reasonably good but the scatter is non-negligible. In spiteof the scatter, the Revised Hubble T system can be used to train anautomated galaxy classifier, e.g. an artificial neural network, tohandle the large number of galaxy images that are being compiled in theAPM and other surveys.
| The small scale environment of low surface brightness disk galaxies
We use a sample of about 340 low surface brightness (LSB) disk galaxieswith measured redshifts in combination with the Center for Astrophysicsredshift survey to test the hypothesis that LSB galaxies have a deficitof nearby companion galaxies compared to high surface brightness (HSB)disk galaxies. We find a very strong statistical deficit of galaxieslocated within a projected radius of 0.5 Mpc and within a velocity of500 km/s around LSB disk galaxies compared to HSB ones. Further,comparing LSB and HSB disk galaxies which are located in the sameportion of the sky indicates that the average distance to the nearestneighbor is 1.7 times farther for LSB disk galaxies. AKomologorov-Smirnoff test rules out, at greater than the 99 percentconfidence level, the hypothesis that the distribution ofnearest-neighbor distances is the same for HSB and LSB disk galaxies. Wespeculate that LSB disk galaxies have relatively long formation timescales and therefore must form in relative isolation. In addition, thelack of tidal interactions over a Hubble time serves to suppress theoverall star-formation rate as no external trigger is available to helpclump the gas. The observed low surface densities of H I in combinationwith the low probability of tidal interactions effectively preventsthese disk galaxies from evolving very rapidly.
| General study of group membership. II - Determination of nearby groups
We present a whole sky catalog of nearby groups of galaxies taken fromthe Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database. From the 78,000 objects in thedatabase, we extracted a sample of 6392 galaxies, complete up to thelimiting apparent magnitude B0 = 14.0. Moreover, in order to considersolely the galaxies of the local universe, all the selected galaxieshave a known recession velocity smaller than 5500 km/s. Two methods wereused in group construction: a Huchra-Geller (1982) derived percolationmethod and a Tully (1980) derived hierarchical method. Each method gaveus one catalog. These were then compared and synthesized to obtain asingle catalog containing the most reliable groups. There are 485 groupsof a least three members in the final catalog.
| On the relationship between radio emission and optical properties in early-type galaxies
To study the origin of radio activity in early-type galaxies, thepossible dependence of their radio emission on basic optical parameters,such as the absolute magnitude, the central velocity dispersion sigma,and the mean surface brightness mu is explored. A sample of 743 E and SOgalaxies is used which is based on three independent radio surveys ofoptically selected galaxies with virtually complete information onmagnitudes, morphological types, redshift distances, diameters, andradio fluxes. For both E and SO galaxies, only the absolute magnitudeappears to be directly related to the radio activity, while sigma and mudo not. Also, a significant dependence of the apparent flattening onradio power is confirmed for E galaxies. Some relevant implications ofthese results are discussed.
| An extragalactic database. I - The Catalogue of Principal Galaxies
The Catalogue of Principal Galaxies is described, which lists equatorialcoordinates (for the equinoxes 1950 and 2000) and cross-identificationsfor 73,197 galaxies. The 40,932 coordinates have standard deviationssmaller than 10 arcsec. A total of 131,601 names from the 38 most commonsources are listed. In addition, mean data for each object are givenwhen available: 49,102 morphological descriptions, 52,954 apparent majorand minor axes, 67,116 apparent magnitudes, 20,046 radial velocities and24,361 position angles. This information was used for facilitatingproper identification. Finally, distribution options are explained.
| Statistics of galaxy orientations - Morphology and large-scale structure
Using the Uppsala General Catalog of bright galaxies and the northernand southern maps of the Lick counts of galaxies, statistical evidenceof a morphology-orientation effect is found. Major axes of ellipticalgalaxies are preferentially oriented along the large-scale features ofthe Lick maps. However, the orientations of the major axes of spiral andlenticular galaxies show no clear signs of significant nonrandombehavior at a level of less than about one-fifth of the effect seen forellipticals. The angular scale of the detected alignment effect forUppsala ellipticals extends to at least theta of about 2 deg, which at aredshift of z of about 0.02 corresponds to a linear scale of about 2/hMpc.
| A search for features in early-type galaxies
Using data from the CCD surface-photometry survey of Djorgovski (1985),images of 159 galaxies were examined for the presence of dust lanes,incipient stellar disks, bars, shells, and other features that signifydeviations from elliptical symmetry. The sample contained 116 ellipticalgalaxies, 33 SO galaxies and 10 intermediate galaxies. It was found thatforty-two of the ellipticals either definitely or very likely containdust, either in patches or in well-defined lanes or rings. Five of theE/SO galaxies also show possible or definite dust, as do 15 of the SOs.Three of the elliptical galaxies definitely contain stellar disks, withseveral more possible candidates. The presence of these features inalmost half of the elliptical galaxies studied demonstrates thatelliptical galaxies are not the featureless objects they were oncethought to be. Moreover, the finding of weak stellar disks in some ofthem further blurs the distinction between ellipticals and SOs.
| A complete galaxy redshift sample. III - Methods and catalogue
Redshifts and photometry are presented for 329 field galaxies selectedin five high-latitude fields to limiting isophotal B1 magnitudes ofabout 17. The essential spectroscopy was obtained at theAnglo-Australian Telescope. It is demonstrated that the photometricprecision is better than 0.10 mag and that the radial velocity errorsare mostly below 45 km/s. Some aspects of the galaxy distribution andspectral-line statistics are briefly discussed.
| A survey of galaxy redshifts. IV - The data
The complete list of the best available radial velocities for the 2401galaxies in the merged Zwicky-Nilson catalog brighter than 14.5mz and with b (II) above +40 deg or below -30 deg ispresented. Almost 60 percent of the redshifts are from the CfA surveyand are accurate to typically 35 km/s.
|
Submit a new article
Related links
Submit a new link
Member of following groups:
|
Observation and Astrometry data
Catalogs and designations:
|
