Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-09-07
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
To appear in proceedings of The Monster's Fiery Breath: Feedback in Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters (AIP conference series)
Scientific paper
We present a new deep optical study of a luminosity limited sample of nearby elliptical galaxies, attempting to observe the effects of gravitational interactions on the ISM of these objects. This study is motivated by recent observations of M86, a nearby elliptical galaxy that shows possible evidence for gas heating through a recent gravitational interaction. The complete sample includes luminous ellipticals in clusters, groups and the field. For each of the galaxies we objectively derive a tidal parameter which measures the deviation of the stellar body from a smooth, relaxed model and find that 73% of them show tidal disturbance signatures in their stellar bodies. This is the first time that such an analysis is done on a statistically complete sample and it confirms that elliptical galaxies continue to grow and evolve through gravitational interactions even in the local Universe. Our study of ellipticals in a wide range of interaction stages, along with available ISM data will attempt to shed light on this possibly alternative mechanism for maintaining the observed ISM temperatures of elliptical galaxies.
Kenney Jeffrey D. P.
Tal Tomer
van Dokkum Pieter G.
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