The ATLAS3D project - XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images
The ATLAS3D project - XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images
复制标题
DOI：
10.1093/mnras/stu2019
复制
发表时间：
2014-10
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
P. Duc;J. Cuillandre;Emin Karabal;M. Cappellari;K. Alatalo;L. Blitz;F. Bournaud;M. Bureau;A. Croc
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Duc;J. Cuillandre;Emin Karabal;M. Cappellari;K. Alatalo;L. Blitz;F. Bournaud;M. Bureau;A. Croc
基于星星计数的星系考古学有助于重建本星系群过去的质量组合。新的观测技术和数据简化的发展，加上使用灵敏的大视场相机，现在允许我们在更遥远的星系中利用它们的漫射低表面亮度（LSB）光来追求这种技术。作为ATLAS^（3D）项目的一部分，我们使用加拿大-法国-夏威夷望远镜的MegaCam相机获得了附近早期星系（ETG）的极深多波段图像。我们在这里提出了一个目录的92个星系的ATLAS^（3D）样本，这是位于低到中等密度的环境。观测策略和数据减少管道，实现了几个数量级的增益在限制表面亮度相对于经典的成像调查，提出。调查的规模和深度与最近的其他深度成像项目进行了比较。本文强调了LSB优化调查在检测新的突出结构，改变星系的表观形态的能力。还讨论了深成像观测的内在局限性，其中包括扩展鬼反射对星系恒星晕的污染，以及来自星系尘埃的卷云辐射。该项目的主要目标之一是对追踪ETG现在和过去大规模组装的精细结构进行检测和系统普查。我们提供了每种类型的观察到的结构的具体例子-潮汐尾，恒星流和壳-并解释他们是如何识别和分类。我们给出了初步结果的概述。详细的统计分析将在今后的论文中提出。
Galactic archaeology based on star counts is instrumental to reconstruct the past mass assembly of Local Group galaxies. The development of new observing techniques and data reduction, coupled with the use of sensitive large field of view cameras, now allows us to pursue this technique in more distant galaxies exploiting their diffuse low surface brightness (LSB) light. As part of the ATLAS^(3D) project, we have obtained with the MegaCam camera at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope extremely deep, multiband images of nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs). We present here a catalogue of 92 galaxies from the ATLAS^(3D) sample, which are located in low- to medium-density environments. The observing strategy and data reduction pipeline, which achieve a gain of several magnitudes in the limiting surface brightness with respect to classical imaging surveys, are presented. The size and depth of the survey are compared to other recent deep imaging projects. The paper highlights the capability of LSB-optimized surveys at detecting new prominent structures that change the apparent morphology of galaxies. The intrinsic limitations of deep imaging observations are also discussed, among those, the contamination of the stellar haloes of galaxies by extended ghost reflections, and the cirrus emission from Galactic dust. The detection and systematic census of fine structures that trace the present and past mass assembly of ETGs are one of the prime goals of the project. We provide specific examples of each type of observed structures – tidal tails, stellar streams and shells – and explain how they were identified and classified. We give an overview of the initial results. The detailed statistical analysis will be presented in future papers.