Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-07-16
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
8 pages, invited review to appear in the proceedings of the Yale Cosmology Workshop on `The Shapes of Galaxies & their Halos",
Scientific paper
We have used STIS aboard HST to search for Lyman-alpha (Lya) absorption in the outer regions of nine nearby (cz<6000 km/s) galaxies using background QSOs and AGN as probes. The foreground galaxies are intercepted between 26 and 199 h-1 kpc from their centers, and in all cases we detect Lya within +/-500 km/s of the galaxies' systemic velocities. The intervening galaxies have a wide range of luminosities, from M_B = -17.1 to -20.0, and reside in various environments: half the galaxies are relatively isolated, the remainder form parts of groups or clusters of varying richness. The equivalent widths of the Lya lines range from 0.08 - 0.68 A and, with the notable exception of absorption from one pair, crudely correlate with sightline separation in a way consistent with previously published data, though the column densities derived from the lines do not. The lack of correlation between line strength and galaxy luminosity or, in particular, the environment of the galaxy, suggests that the absorption is not related to any individual galaxy, but arises in gas which follows the same dark-matter structures that the galaxies inhabit.
Blades Chris J.
Bowen David V.
Pettini Max
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