The intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies

Details The intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies The intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies

Sep 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992apj...396..445r&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 396, no. 2, Sept. 10, 1992, p. 445-452.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

61

Elliptical Galaxies, Luminosity, Shapes, Sky Surveys (Astronomy), Brightness, Ellipticity, Galactic Evolution, Galactic Rotation, Intergalactic Media, Spatial Distribution

Scientific paper

The luminosity-weighted axis ratios are computed for a sample of 171 elliptical galaxies observed by Djorgovski (1985). The apparent axis ratios are used to constrain the intrinsic shape of elliptical galaxies. The best-fitting distribution as measured by Kolmogorov-Smirnov and chi-squared tests of the distribution of projected axis ratios, has beta 0 = 0.98, gamma 0 = 0.69, and sigma 0 = 0.11. If elliptical galaxies rotate around their shortest principal axis, this distribution of shapes cannot explain the observed frequency of galaxies with misalignments of about 90 deg between their rotation axes and apparent minor axes; some elliptical galaxies must rotate around their longest principal axes. The shapes of clusters of galaxies are best fitted by a distribution f(beta, gamma) with sigma 0 = 0.162, beta 0 = 0.67, and gamma 0 = 0.45.

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