The Origin of Ultra Compact Dwarf Galaxies in Virgo

Details The Origin of Ultra Compact Dwarf Galaxies in Virgo The Origin of Ultra Compact Dwarf Galaxies in Virgo

Feb 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003noao.prop..458d&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2003A-0458

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We have discovered a new type of galaxy, the ``ultra-compact dwarfs'' (UCDs), which are unresolved in ground-based imaging. The Fornax cluster has seven known UCDs. We have recently found the first five UCDs in Virgo, demonstrating that they are not unique to Fornax. While the UCDs might be interpreted as mere giant globular clusters, our favoured explanation of their origin is that they are the remnant nuclei of dwarf elliptical galaxies which have been tidally stripped of their halos through close encounters with giant cluster galaxies. The goal of this proposal is to obtain internal velocity dispersions and spectral line indices of the new Virgo UCDs using Keck II+ESI to allow comparison with the Fornax UCD population, for which we already have such data, and to further test the stripping hypothesis. These measurements of the UCDs and a comparison sample of globular clusters and dwarf galaxy nuclei in Virgo will determine if UCDs and the most luminous globular clusters are one and the same or distinct systems. The UCD galaxies may show us that stripping of nucleated dwarfs has been, over a Hubble time, a vital force in cluster evolution, supplying building material for the halos of cD galaxies and the intergalactic populations of stars and star clusters.

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