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arXiv 1310.6367astro-ph.CO
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NGC1277:附近宇宙中的一个巨大的紧凑遗迹星系

NGC1277: a massive compact relic galaxy in the nearby Universe

Ignacio Trujillo, Anna Ferre-Mateu, Marc Balcells, Alexandre Vazdekis, Patricia Sanchez-Blazquez

摘要:

早在10 Gyr前,恒星超过10^11 Msun的星系就已经存在。虽然这些大质量星系中的大多数必须随后通过正在进行的恒星形成和与其他星系的合并而转变,但一小部分(<0.1%)可能幸存下来直到今天。对于这样的遗迹星系的观测,是探索早期宇宙的有用窗口,迄今为止还没有定论:在本星系中已经发现了质量和大小与在高红移(M*>10^11 Msun; Re<1.5 kpc)观测到的星系相似的星系,但是它们的恒星太年轻了,不可能是遗迹星系。本文探讨了附近星系NGC 1277(在英仙座星系团中,距离为73 Mpc)的第一个案例,它满足了被认为是遗迹星系的所有标准。使用深光学光谱,我们得出的恒星形成的历史沿星系的结构:恒星星族是统一的年龄(>10 Gyr),没有证据表明最近的恒星形成事件。它们的恒星金属丰度是超太阳的([Fe/H]=0.20+-0.04)和α富集的([α/Fe]=0.4+-0.1)。这表明这个星系中大部分恒星的形成时间非常短。该天体的自转速度也非常快(Vrot~300 km/s),速度色散很大(sigma>300 km/s)。NGC 1277将允许未来对结构,内部动力学,金属丰度,尘埃含量和初始质量函数等属性进行详细的探索,这些属性可以追溯到第一个大质量星系形成时的10-12 Gyr。

英文摘要:

As early as 10 Gyr ago, galaxies with more than 10^11 Msun in stars already existed. While most of these massive galaxies must have subsequently transformed through on-going star formation and mergers with other galaxies, a small fraction (<0.1%) may have survived untouched till today. Searches for such relic galaxies, useful windows to explore the early Universe, have been inconclusive to date: galaxies with masses and sizes like those observed at high redshift (M*>10^11 Msun; Re<1.5 kpc) have been found in the local Universe, but their stars are far too young for the galaxy to be a relic galaxy. This paper explores the first case of a nearby galaxy, NGC1277 (in the Perseus cluster at a distance of 73 Mpc), which fulfills all the criteria to be considered a relic galaxy. Using deep optical spectroscopy, we derive the star formation history along the structure of the galaxy: the stellar populations are uniformly old (>10 Gyr) with no evidence for more recent star formation episodes. The metallicity of their stars is super-solar ([Fe/H]=0.20+-0.04) and alpha enriched ([alpha/Fe]=0.4+-0.1). This suggests a very short formation time scale for the bulk of stars of this galaxy. This object also rotates very fast (Vrot~300 km/s) and has a large velocity dispersion (sigma>300 km/s). NGC1277 will allow future explorations in full detail of properties such as the structure, internal dynamics, metallicity, dust content and initial mass function at around 10-12 Gyr back in time when the first massive galaxies were built.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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