Other
Scientific paper
Jul 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999hst..prop.8184c&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #8184
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Hst Proposal Id #8184 Galaxy Structure And Dynamics
Scientific paper
Approximately 20 percent of all galaxy clusters are known to contain cD galaxies. Located at the dynamical centers of their host cluster or subcluster, these supergiant elliptical galaxies show extended, diffuse stellar envelopes which trace the gravitational potential of the surrounding cluster. A leading model for their formation involves the growth of cD envelopes through mergers and/or tidal stripping of other cluster galaxies. Unfortunately, the envelopes have extremely low surface brightness, making direct observational tests of this model using either spectroscopy or broadband colors virtually impossible. On the other hand, globular clusters {GCs} are ideal tracers of the underlying stellar populations of cD envelopes. Since the mean metallicity of GCs is known to depend strongly on the total luminosity of the galaxy in which they form, an inescapable implication of cD envelope formation through mergers or tidal stripping is that the total luminosity of the envelope progenitor galaxies must be imprinted in the metallicities of the GCs now associated with these galaxies. We propose to use the superb imaging capabilities of HST to measure colors, and hence metallicities, for several hundred GCs surrounding six nearby cD galaxies. Our short program will triple the number of cDs having accurate GC metallicity distributions, and will provide the first strong constraints on the luminosities of the progenitors of cD envelopes.
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