2011/03/07 by A. P. Huxor, Avon Huxor, Steve Phillipps +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Elliptical galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #STREAMS #Space Technology and Applications #Spiral (railway) #Spiral galaxy #Stripping (fiber) #Tidal force #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18655.x
9 pages, 10 figures. Accepted to MNRAS
arxiv created 2011/03/07 · openalex publication_date 2011/06/07 · arxiv updated 2015/05/27 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present two newly discovered compact elliptical (cE) galaxies, exhibiting clear evidence of tidal steams, and found during a search of SDSS DR7 for cE candidates. The structural parameters of the cEs are derived using galfit, giving effective radii, Re, of 388 and 263 pc, and B-band mean surface brightnesses within Re of 19.4 and 19.2 mag arcsec−2. We have re-analysed the SDSS spectra, which indicate that they possess young to intermediate-age stellar populations. These two cEs provide direct evidence, a ‘smoking gun’, for the process of tidal stripping that is believed to be the origin of M32-type galaxies. Both are in small groups with a large spiral fraction, suggesting that we may be seeing the formation of such cE galaxies in dynamically young environments. The more compact of the galaxies is found in a small group not unlike the Local Group, and thus it provides an additional model for the understanding of M32.