Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...21112204k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #122.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.952
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Wide field extragalactic surveys such as the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey (ALFALFA) are making use of the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen to measure the properties of some 30,000 galaxies in the local Universe. The Virgo Cluster, at 16.7 Mpc distant, is an interesting high priority target area and easily accessible to the Arecibo telescope declination range. One of the survey goals is to characterize the HI properties of the Virgo population and surrounding vicinity. This census of HI bearing objects associated with the Virgo cluster will be presented based on data from the ALFALFA Virgo HI catalog (Giovanelli et al. 2007; Kent et al. 2007). Over 1200 spectra and associated parameters comprise this catalog. The data show a concentration of HI mass in the outlying periphery 1 Mpc away from the cluster center. The distribution of HI in the cluster environment also has important consequences concerning the HI mass function and implications for cluster formation and evolution. High M(HI)/L ratio objects, especially the HI clouds and streams with no apparent optical counterparts are among the most interesting objects detected in the survey (Kent et al. 2007; Haynes, Giovanelli, and Kent 2007). This optically ``inert'' class of gas-rich objects contains only a small handful of detections. Followup observations with the Very Large Array have resolved some of these extreme M(HI)/L HI clouds, showing that they could easily disperse within a cluster crossing time if not gravitationally bound. These phenomena are likely transient since they are not seen in large numbers.
This work has been supported by NSF grants AST--0307661 and AST--0435697.
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