The geometry of NGC 3379 - Subsystems in ellipticals?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Astronomical Photometry, Elliptical Galaxies, Geometry, Halos, Isophotes, Tides

Scientific paper

High-resolution photographic observations provide evidence that the geometry of NGC 3379 can be described in terms of two distinct parts: a central one with a mean ellipticity of 0.10 and slight isophote twists, and an outer one with a mean ellipticity of 0.14 and more pronounced isophote twists. These two parts are separated at about 25 arcsec where the (integrated) color index profile and the photometric profile exhibit prominent features. The same effect is found in three other elliptical galaxies for which data are available: M87, NGC 4697, NGC 4486B. The case of NGC 4697 would be consistent however with geometrical effects in a pure r exp 1/4 galaxy. It is suggested that this correlation between the three profiles could be representative of entangled sub-systems having their own specific properties. This phenomenon could be intrinsic to the structure of elliptical galaxies, but is more likely to be due to tidal interactions, although there is no other strong evidence for tidal effects in the NGC 3379-NGC 3384 pair.

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