1998/08/24 by G. R. Knapp, Knapp, G. R.
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Pharmacological Effects and Assays #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9808266
16 pages, ASP LaTeX, 4 eps figures. To appear in "Star Formation in Early Type Galaxies", eds. P. Carral and J. Cepa, ASP Conference Proceedings
arxiv created 1998/08/24 · openalex publication_date 1998/08/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Elliptical galaxies outside dense clusters are observed to contain small amounts (relative to spiral galaxies) of cold interstellar gas. This review discusses the atomic gas, the molecular gas, and the dust in elliptical galaxies. Field elliptical galaxies contain about 0.01 to 0.1 of the cold interstellar matter content of spiral galaxies of similar luminosity, and support a low level of star formation. The surface densities of cold gas clouds in the centers of some elliptical galaxies are comparable to those in the densest regions of the Galactic disk. These observations suggest that elliptical galaxies in the field, like spiral galaxies, have a long-lived interstellar medium which evolves with the galaxy. The timescale for star formation, however, appears to be much shorter, leaving these systems with little gas at the present epoch.