Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21341904c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #419.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.234
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
As part of the HST/ACS Coma Cluster Treasury Survey, we have undertaken a Keck/LRIS spectroscopic campaign to determine membership for faint dwarf galaxies. In the process, we have discovered a population of Ultra Compact Dwarf galaxies (UCDs) in the Coma cluster. This new class of object was first discovered in the nearby Fornax cluster a decade ago. Since that time UCDs have only been confirmed to exist in a handful of clusters. Identifying UCDs is challenging because they have properties (sizes, magnitudes, colors) that make them nearly indistinguishable from late-type stars, particularly in ground-based seeing. At the distance of Coma, UCDs have angular sizes 0.01 < r_e < 0.2 arcsec. Even with ACS imaging, the larger ones are just resolved. The nature, origin, and properties of these enigmatic objects have thus remained poorly understood. Whether UCDs constitute a new population of small dwarf galaxy, perhaps the end product of cluster destructive processes such as 'threshing' acting on normal dwarf galaxies, or whether they are simply massive star clusters is still up for debate. We have identified a large number of candidate UCDs in the Coma cluster through magnitude, color, and surface brightness selection criteria, and have spectroscopically confirmed 16 of 26 candidates brighter than M_R < -12 to be bona fide UCD cluster members. This current study provides the dense environment datapoint necessary for understanding the UCD population. We will present the results from this study and describe what we have learned about the Coma UCD population.
Carter David
Chiboucas Kristin
HST/ACS Coma Cluster Treasury Collaboration
Marzke Ronald O.
Tully Brent R.
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