Intergalactic Stars in the Fornax Cluster

Details Intergalactic Stars in the Fornax Cluster Intergalactic Stars in the Fornax Cluster

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996oxun.rept.....t&link_type=abstract

Technical Report, Oxford Univ. ,Oxford United Kingdom Dept. of Physics

Physics

Galactic Clusters, Planetary Nebulae, Intergalactic Media, Interacting Galaxies, Astronomical Photometry

Scientific paper

Ten candidate intergalactic planetary nebulae were identified in the Fornax galaxy cluster. These objects were found during observations in 1992 and 1993 in three fields chosen well away from any Fornax galaxy at 15 min, 30 min, and 45 min from the center of Fornax. The usual method of blinking images taken in a narrow (OIII) lambda 5007 A filter, with images taken in an adjacent broad filter was used. The measured fluxes in the narrow, broad, and I bands are consistent with these unresolved objects being planetary nebulae immersed in an intergalactic population of stars. Such a population is expected to arise as a consequence of tidal encounters between galaxies, and our findings strengthen the case for the existence of such tidal debris. The confirmation of some or all of these ten candidates as planetary nebulae would imply that intergalactic stars constitute a substantial fraction of all the stars in Fornax, up to an estimated 40 percent. Intergalactic planetary nebulae could prove useful in probing the underlying cluster potential, since they would be far more abundant than galaxies. Possible contamination of the sample by emission-line galaxies is discussed, but it is concluded that planetary nebulae is the most likely identification for the detected objects.

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