A Search for Counter-Rotating Stars in S0 Galaxies

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Latex file, using mn.sty and epsf.sty, including postscript figures except fig.2. Figure 2

Scientific paper

We have obtained high signal-to-noise spectra along the major axes of 28 S0 galaxies in order to search for the presence of disk stars on retrograde orbits. Full line-of-sight velocity distributions were extracted from the data, and the velocity distributions were modelled as arising from the superposition of populations of stars on prograde and retrograde orbits. We find no new cases in which a significant fraction of disk stars lie on retrograde orbits; an identical analysis of NGC~4550 does reveal the previously-known counter-rotating stellar disk in this system. Upper limits determined for each object indicate that no more than about 5% of the observed disk star light could arise from counter-rotating stellar components. These results suggest that previously-discovered disk galaxies with counter-rotating stars are exceptional and that (at 95% confidence) at most 10% of S0 galaxies contain significant counter-rotating populations. The most likely value for the fraction of such S0 galaxies lies closer to 1%. This result contrasts with the prevalence of counter-rotating gas in these systems; combining our new observations with existing data, we find that 24+/-8% (1-sigma error) of the gas disks in S0 galaxies counter-rotate relative to their stellar components.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

A Search for Counter-Rotating Stars in S0 Galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A Search for Counter-Rotating Stars in S0 Galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Search for Counter-Rotating Stars in S0 Galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-18973

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.