Evidence from Intrinsic Shapes for Two Families of Elliptical Galaxies

Details Evidence from Intrinsic Shapes for Two Families of Elliptical Galaxies Evidence from Intrinsic Shapes for Two Families of Elliptical Galaxies

1996-01-10

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9601038v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

9 TEX pages, 4 PostScript figures, uses AASTEX, epsf.sty. Submitted to The Astronomical Journal, January 1996; revised Februar

Scientific paper

10.1086/117959

Bright elliptical galaxies have a markedly different distribution of Hubble types than faint ellipticals; the division occurs near M_B=-20 and bright ellipticals are rounder on average. The Hubble types of galaxies in both groups are narrowly clustered, around E1.5 in the case of the bright galaxies and around E3 for the fainter ones. The Hubble-type distribution of the faint ellipticals is consistent with oblate symmetry, but the oblate hypothesis fails for the bright ellipticals. However a distribution of triaxial intrinsic shapes can successfully reproduce the apparent shape data for either group. The distribution of intrinsic, short-to-long axis ratios is peaked around 0.75 for bright galaxies and 0.65 for faint galaxies. Our results provide further evidence that elliptical galaxies should be divided into two, morphologically distinct families.

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