Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-10-01
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
26 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Science in press, published in Science Express on 1/Oct/2009. Full resolution figures in the su
Scientific paper
10.1126/science.1175930
Compact elliptical galaxies are characterized by small sizes and high stellar densities. They are thought to form through tidal stripping of massive progenitors. However, only a handful of them were known, preventing us from understanding the role played by this mechanism in galaxy evolution. We present a population of 21 compact elliptical galaxies gathered with the Virtual Observatory. Follow-up spectroscopy and data mining, using high-resolution images and large databases, show that all the galaxies exhibit old metal-rich stellar populations different from those of dwarf elliptical galaxies of similar masses but similar to those of more massive early-type galaxies, supporting the tidal stripping scenario. Their internal properties are reproduced by numerical simulations, which result in compact dynamically hot remnants resembling the galaxies in our sample.
Cayatte Veronique
Chilingarian Igor
Dodonov Serguei
Durand Daniel
Durret Florence
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