We discuss a theoretical model for the early evolution of massive star clusters and confront it with the ALMA, radio and infrared observations of the young stellar cluster highly obscured by the molecular cloud D1 in the nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxy NGC 5253. We show that a large turbulent pressure in the central zones of D1 cluster may cause individual wind-blown bubbles to reach pressure confinement before encountering their neighbors. In this case stellar winds are added to the hot shocked wind pockets of gas around individual massive stars that leads them to meet and produce a cluster wind in time-scales less than $10^5$ yrs. In order to inhibit the possibility of cloud dispersal, or the early negative star formation feedback, one should account for mass loading that may come, for example, from pre-main sequence (PMS) low-mass stars through photo-evaporation of their proto-stellar disks. Mass loading at a rate in excess of 8$\times 10^{-9}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ per each PMS star is required to extend the hidden star cluster phase in this particular cluster. In this regime, the parental cloud remains relatively unperturbed, while pockets of molecular, photoionized and hot gas coexist within the star forming region. Nevertheless, the most likely scenario for cloud D1 and its embedded cluster is that the hot shocked winds around individual massive stars should merge at an age of a few millions of years when the PMS star proto-stellar disks vanish and mass loading ceases that allows a cluster to form a global wind.
We present new imaging and spectral data for globular clusters (GCs) around NGC 4365 and NGC 4342. NGC 4342 is a compact, X-ray luminous S0 galaxy with an unusually massive central black hole. NGC 4365 is another atypical galaxy that dominates the W' group of which NGC 4342 is a member. Using imaging from the MegaCam instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) we identify a stream of GCs between the two galaxies and extending beyond NGC 4342. The stream of GCs is spatially coincident with a stream/plume of stars previously identified. We find that the photometric colours of the str…
The case of NGC 5824, a cluster possibly embedded in a dark matter halo
Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá（塔拉帕卡大学高等研究所）；Institute for Astronomy, University of Edimburgh（爱丁堡大学天文研究所）；Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile（智利大学天文学系）
We present a detailed study of the nuclear star clusters (NSCs) and massive black holes (BHs) of four of the nearest low-mass early-type galaxies: M32, NGC205, NGC5012, and NGC5206. We measure dynamical masses of both the BHs and NSCs in these galaxies using Gemini/NIFS or VLT/SINFONI stellar kinematics, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, and Jeans Anisotropic Models. We detect massive BHs in M32, NGC5102, and NGC5206, while in NGC205, we find only an upper limit. These BH mass estimates are consistent with previous measurements in M32 and NGC205, while those in NGC5102 and NGC5206 are esti…
We investigate 5 embedded clusters (ECs) and the extended stellar group itself of the prominent H\,II region NGC\,2174 (Sh2-252), which presents scarce and heterogeneous information, coming from the optical and infrared. Considering the discrepant values of distance and age, the clusters and the H\,II region appear to be physically unrelated. The analysis is based on field-star decontaminated 2MASS photometry, which allows sampling the pre-main sequence (PMS). We find that Sh2-252A, C, E, NGC\,2175s, and Teu\,136 are small ECs (radius within $1.0 - 2.3$\,pc) characterised by a similar age ($\s…
Low luminosity galaxies may be the building blocks of more luminous systems. Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) observations of the low luminosity, early-type galaxy NGC59 are obtained and analysed. These data are used to measure the stellar population parameters in the centre and off-centre regions of this galaxy, in order to uncover its likely star formation history. We find evidence of older stars, in addition to young stars in the emission line regions. The metallicity of the stellar population is constrained to be [Z/H] ~ -1.1 to -1.6, which is extremely low, even for this low lumino…
Using Subaru/Suprime-Cam wide-field imaging and both Keck/ESI and LBT/MODS spectroscopy, we identify and characterize a compact star cluster, which we term NGC 3628-UCD1, embedded in a stellar stream around the spiral galaxy NGC 3628. The size and luminosity of UCD1 are similar to $ω$ Cen, the most luminous Milky Way globular cluster, which has long been suspected to be the stripped remnant of an accreted dwarf galaxy. The object has a magnitude of $i=19.3$ mag (${\rm L}_{\rm i}=1.4\times10^{6}~{\rm L}_{\odot}$). UCD1 is marginally resolved in our ground-based imaging, with a half-light radius…
Mergers of galaxies are an important mode for galaxy evolution because they serve as an efficient trigger of powerful starbursts. However, observational studies of the molecular gas properties during their early stages are scarce. We present interferometric CO(2-1) maps of two luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), NGC 3110 and NGC 232, obtained with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) with ~ 1 kpc resolution. While NGC 3110 is a spiral galaxy interacting with a minor (14:1 stellar mass) companion, NGC 232 is interacting with a similarly sized object. We find that such interactions have likely induced …
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 2 observations of CO(2-1) emission from the circumnuclear disks in two early-type galaxies, NGC 1380 and NGC 6861. The disk in each galaxy is highly inclined ($i\,{\sim}\,75^{\circ}$), and the projected velocities of the molecular gas near the galaxy centers are ${\sim}300\,\mathrm{km \, s^{-1}}$ in NGC 1380 and ${\sim}500\,\mathrm{km \, s^{-1}}$ in NGC 6861. We fit thin disk dynamical models to the ALMA data cubes to constrain the masses of the central black holes (BHs). We created host galaxy models using Hubble Space Teles…
We report on neutral hydrogen (HI) observations of the NGC 7232 group with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). These observations were conducted as part of the Wide-field ASKAP L-Band Legacy All-sky Blind surveY (WALLABY) Early Science program with an array of 12 ASKAP antennas equipped with Phased Array Feeds, which were used to form 36 beams to map a field of view of 30 square degrees. Analyzing a subregion of the central beams, we detect 17 HI sources. Eleven of these detections are identified as galaxies and have stellar counterparts, of which five are newly resolved …
GALEX detected a significant fraction of early-type galaxies showing Far-UV bright structures. These features suggest the occurrence of recent star formation episodes. We aim at understanding their evolutionary path[s] and the mechanisms at the origin of their UV-bright structures. We investigate with a multi-lambda approach 11 early-types selected because of their nearly passive stage of evolution in the nuclear region. The paper, second of a series, focuses on the comparison between UV features detected by Swift-UVOT, tracing recent star formation, and the galaxy optical structure mapping ol…
The earliest stages of star formation occur enshrouded in dust and are not observable in the optical. Here we leverage the extraordinary new high-resolution infrared imaging from JWST to begin the study of dust-embedded star clusters in nearby galaxies throughout the local volume. We present a technique for identifying dust-embedded clusters in NGC 7496 (18.7 Mpc), the first galaxy to be observed by the PHANGS-JWST Cycle 1 Treasury Survey. We select sources that have strong 3.3$μ$m PAH emission based on a $\rm F300M-F335M$ color excess, and identify 67 candidate embedded clusters. Only eight o…
We present an orbit-based method of combining stellar and cold gas kinematics to constrain the dark matter profile of early-type galaxies. We apply this method to early-type galaxy NGC 2974, using Pan-STARRS imaging and SAURON stellar kinematics to model the stellar orbits, and introducing HI kinematics from VLA observation as a tracer of the gravitational potential. The introduction of the cold gas kinematics shows a significant effect on the confidence limits of especially the dark halo properties: we exclude more than $95\%$ of models within the $1-σ$ confidence level of Schwarzschild model…
We present a multiple population search in two old Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Globular Clusters, Hodge 11 and NGC 2210. This work uses data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope from programme GO-14164 in Cycle 23. Both of these clusters exhibit a broadened main sequence with the second population representing ($20 \pm \! \sim \! 5$)% for NGC 2210 and ($30 \pm \! \sim \! 5$)% for Hodge 11. In both clusters, the smaller population is redder than the primary population, suggesting CNO variations. Hodge 11 also displays a bluer second populat…
Blanco 1, a 100Myr open cluster in the solar neighborhood, is well known for its two 50pc-long tidal tails. Taking Blanco 1 as a reference, we find evidence of early-stage tidal disruption in two other open clusters of ~120Myr: the Pleiades and NGC 2516, via Gaia EDR3 data. These two clusters have a total mass of 2-6 times that of Blanco 1. Despite having a similar age as Blanco 1, the Pleiades and NGC 2516 have a larger fraction of their members bound: 86% of their mass is inside the tidal radius, versus 63% for Blanco 1. However, a correlation between Blanco 1's 50pc-long tidal tails and the…
Approximately 20% of early-type galaxies host small nuclear stellar discs that are tens to a few hundred parsecs in size. Such discs are expected to be easily disrupted during major galactic encounters, hence their age serve to constrain their assembly history. We use VIMOS integral-field spectroscopic observations for the intermediate-mass E0 galaxy NGC4458 and age-date its nuclear disc via high-resolution fitting of various model spectra. We find that the nuclear disc is at least 6 Gyr old. A clue to gain narrow limits to the stellar age is our knowledge of the nuclear disc contribution to t…
We improve the dynamical black hole (BH) mass estimates in three nearby low-mass early-type galaxies--NGC 205, NGC 5102, and NGC 5206. We use new \hst/STIS spectroscopy to fit the star formation histories of the nuclei in these galaxies, and use these measurements to create local color--mass-to-light ratio (\ml) relations. We then create new mass models from \hst~imaging and combined with adaptive optics kinematics, we use Jeans dynamical models to constrain their BH masses. The masses of the central BHs in NGC 5102 and NGC 5206 are both below one million solar masses and are consistent with o…
As tracers of star formation, galaxy assembly and mass distribution, globular clusters have provided important clues to our understanding of early-type galaxies. But their study has been mostly constrained to galaxy groups and clusters where early-type galaxies dominate, leaving the properties of the globular cluster systems (GCSs) of isolated ellipticals as a mostly uncharted territory. We present Gemini-South/GMOS $g'i'$ observations of five isolated elliptical galaxies: NGC 3962, NGC 2865, IC 4889, NGC 2271 and NGC 4240. Photometry of their GCSs reveals clear color bimodality in three of th…
We present Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind Survey (WALLABY) early science results from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) observations of the NGC 7162 galaxy group. We use archival HIPASS and Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of this group to validate the new ASKAP data and the data reduction pipeline ASKAPsoft. We detect six galaxies in the neutral hydrogen (HI) 21-cm line, expanding the NGC 7162 group membership from four to seven galaxies. Two of the new detections are also the first HI detections of the dwarf galaxies, AM 2159-434 and G…
Massive Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs) show several strong CO absorption features in their H- and K-band spectra that cannot be explained by state-of-the-art stellar population models. For many years, the disagreement has been attributed to the presence of intermediate-age stellar components that are dominated by stars in the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase. However, no robust evidence of this scenario has been provided so far. One way to test this claim is by comparison of CO indices for ETGs and for relic galaxies. Lacking the intermediate-age stellar populations, relic galaxies provide us w…
We present new evidence for eight early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the CALIFA Survey that show clear rotation around their major photometric axis ("prolate rotation"). These are LSBCF560-04, NGC 0647, NGC 0810, NGC 2484, NGC 4874, NGC 5216, NGC 6173 and NGC 6338. Including NGC 5485, a known case of an ETG with stellar prolate rotation, as well as UGC 10695, a further possible candidate for prolate rotation, we report ten CALIFA galaxies in total that show evidence for such a feature in their stellar kinematics. Prolate rotators correspond to ~9% of the volume-corrected sample of CALIFA ETGs, a …
Most of the galaxies in the Universe at present day are in groups, which are key to understanding the galaxy evolution. In this work we present a new deep mosaic of 1.2 x 1.0 square degrees of the group of galaxies centered on NGC 5018, acquired at the ESO VLT Survey Telescope. We use u, g, r images to analyse the structure of the group members and to estimate the intra-group light. Taking advantage of the deep and multiband photometry and of the large field of view of the VST telescope, we studied the structure of the galaxy members and the faint features into the intra-group space and we giv…
We present MUSE integral field spectroscopic data of the S0 galaxy NGC 3115 obtained during the instrument commissioning at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). We analyse the galaxy stellar kinematics and stellar populations and present two dimensional maps of their associated quantities. We thus illustrate the capacity of MUSE to map extra-galactic sources to large radii in an efficient manner, i.e., ~4 Re, and provide relevant constraints on its mass assembly. We probe the well known set of substructures of NGC 3115 (its nuclear disc, stellar rings, outer kpc-scale stellar disc and spheroid)…
Observations of diffuse starlight in the outskirts of galaxies are thought to be a fundamental source of constraints on the cosmological context of galaxy assembly in the $Λ$CDM model. Such observations are not trivial because of the extreme faintness of such regions. In this work, we investigate the photometric properties of six massive early type galaxies (ETGs) in the VEGAS sample (NGC 1399, NGC 3923, NGC 4365, NGC 4472, NGC 5044, and NGC 5846) out to extremely low surface brightness levels, with the goal of characterizing the global structure of their light profiles for comparison to state…
We present an archival analysis of Chandra X-ray observations for twelve nearby early-type galaxies hosting radio sources with radio power $>10^{23} \, \rm{W}~\rm{Hz}^{-1}$ at 1.4 GHz, similar to the radio power of the radio source in NGC 4261. Previously, in a similar analysis of eight nearby X-ray and optically-bright elliptical galaxies, Werner et al. 2012, found that NGC 4261 exhibited unusually low central gas entropy compared to the full sample. In the central 0.3 kpc of NGC 4261, the ratio of cooling time to freefall time ($t_{\rm{cool}}/t_{\rm ff}$) is less than $10$, indicating that c…
NGC 2915 is a unique nearby galaxy that is classified as an isolated blue compact dwarf based on its optical appearance but has an extremely extended H i gas disk with prominent Sd-type spiral arms. To unveil the starburst-triggering mystery of NGC 2915, we performed a comprehensive analysis of deep VLT/MUSE integral field spectroscopic observations that cover the star-forming region in the central kiloparsec of the galaxy. We find that episodes of bursty star formation have recurred in different locations throughout the central region, and the most recent one peaked around 50 Myr ago. The bur…
We present the results of a photometric study of the early-type galaxy NGC 6876 and the surrounding globular cluster system (GCS). The host galaxy is a massive elliptical, the brightest of this type in the Pavo Group. According to its intrinsic brightness (M_v~-22.7), it is expected to belong to a galaxy cluster instead of a poor group. Observational material consists of g', r', i' images obtained with the Gemini/GMOS camera. The selected globular cluster (GC) candidates present a clear bimodal colour distribution at different galactocentric radii, with mean colours and dispersions for the met…
While spiral and lenticular galaxies have large-scale disks extending beyond their bulges, and most local early-type galaxies with 10^{10} < M_*/M_Sun < 2x10^{11} contain a disk (e.g., ATLAS^3D), the early-type galaxies do possess a range of disk sizes. The edge-on, `intermediate-scale' disk in the `disky elliptical' galaxy NGC 1271 has led to some uncertainty as to what its spheroidal component is. Walsh et al. reported a directly measured black hole mass of 3x10^9 M_Sun for this galaxy; which they remarked was an order of magnitude greater than what they expected based on their derivation of…
We discuss near-infrared (NIR) slit spectra of six early-type disk galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. While the depth of the CO(2,0) band is consistent with the centers of these galaxies having solar or slightly sub-solar luminosity-weighted metallicities, galaxy-to-galaxy variations in the depth of the NaI 2.21um doublet are found, with NaI2.21um lines in three galaxies (NGC 4491, NGC 4584, and NGC 4620) that are deeper than those predicted for a solar chemical mixture and a solar-neighborhood mass function. Considering the depth of the NaD lines found by Davidge (2018a), the deep NaI2.21um lines…
Near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectroscopic studies have suggested that passively evolving massive, early-type galaxies host sub-one percent fractions of young stars in their innermost regions. We shed light on the origin of these stars by analysing NGC 1277, a widely studied nearby prototypical massive compact relic galaxy. These are rare galaxies that have survived without experiencing significant size evolution via accretion and mergers since their formation at high redshift. We obtain a spectrum in the UV range within the central 1 kpc region of NGC 1277. We compare a carefully selected set of op…
This paper reports on the atomic hydrogen gas (HI) observations of the spiral galaxy NGC 1566 using the newly commissioned Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. We measure an integrated HI flux density of $180.2$ Jy km s$^{-1}$ emanating from this galaxy, which translates to an HI mass of $1.94\times10^{10}$M$_\circ$ at an assumed distance of $21.3$ Mpc. Our observations show that NGC 1566 has an asymmetric and mildly warped HI disc. The HI-to-stellar mass fraction of NGC 1566 is $0.29$, which is high in comparison with galaxies that have the same stellar mass (…
NGC 4203 is a nearby early-type galaxy surrounded by a very large, low-column-density HI disc. In this paper we study the star formation efficiency in the gas disc of NGC 4203 by using the UV, deep optical imaging and infrared data. We confirm that the HI disc consists of two distinct components: an inner star forming ring with radius from $\sim$ 1 to $\sim$ 3 R$_{eff}$, and an outer disc. The outer HI disc is 9 times more massive than the inner HI ring. At the location of the inner HI ring we detect spiral-like structure both in the deep $g'-r'$ image and in the 8 $μ$m $Spitzer$-IRAC image, e…
This paper focuses on NGC 1533 and the pair IC 2038 and IC 2039 in Dorado a nearby, clumpy, still un-virialized group. We obtained their surface photometry from deep OmegaCAM@ESO-VST images in g and r bands. For NGC 1533, we map the surface brightness down to $μ_g \simeq 30.11$ mag/arcsec$^{2}$ and $μ_r \simeq 28.87$ mag/arcsec$^{2}$ and out to about $4R_e$. At such faint levels the structure of NGC 1533 appear amazingly disturbed with clear structural asymmetry between inner and outer isophotes in the North-East direction. We detect new spiral arm-like tails in the outskirts, which might like…
In the first few Myr the massive stars dynamically interact, produce runaways and affect the initial binary population. Observing and interpreting the dynamics of young massive clusters is key to our understanding of the star formation process and predicting the outcome of stellar evolution. We have studied NGC6611 in the Eagle Nebula (M16), a young massive cluster hosting 19 O stars. We used Gaia EDR3 data to determine the membership, age, cluster dynamics and the kinematics of the massive stars including runaways. The membership analysis yields 137 members located at a mean distance of 1706 …
We present a high spatial resolution ($\approx 20$ pc) of $^{12}$CO($2-1$) observations of the lenticular galaxy NGC4526. We identify 103 resolved Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) and measure their properties: size $R$, velocity dispersion $σ_v$, and luminosity $L$. This is the first GMC catalog of an early-type galaxy. We find that the GMC population in NGC4526 is gravitationally bound, with a virial parameter $α\sim 1$. The mass distribution, $dN/dM \propto M^{-2.39 \pm 0.03}$, is steeper than that for GMCs in the inner Milky Way, but comparable to that found in some late-type galaxies. We find…
We present ALMA data on the 3mm continuum emission, CO isotopologues (12CO, 13CO, C18O), and high-density molecular tracers (HCN, HCO+, HNC, HNCO, CS, CN, and CH3OH) in NGC4526. These data enable a detailed study of the physical properties of the molecular gas in a longtime resident of the Virgo Cluster; comparisons to more commonly-studied spiral galaxies offer intriguing hints into the processing of molecular gas in the cluster environment. Many molecular line ratios in NGC4526, along with our inferred abundances and CO/H2 conversion factors, are similar to those found in nearby spirals. One…
The role of major mergers in galaxy evolution is investigated through a detailed characterization of the stellar populations, ionized gas properties, and star formation rates (SFR) in the early-stage merger LIRGs IC 1623 W and NGC 6090, by analysing optical Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) and high resolution HST imaging. The spectra were processed with the Starlight full spectral fitting code, and the emission lines measured in the residual spectra. The results are compared with control non-interacting spiral galaxies from the CALIFA survey. Merger-induced star formation is extended and rece…
Intermediate mass protostars, the bridge between the very common solar-like protostars and the more massive, but rarer, O and B stars, can only be studied at high physical spatial resolutions in a handful of clouds. In this paper we present and analyze the continuum results from an observing campaign at the Submillimeter Array targeting two well-studied intermediate mass protostars in Orion, NGC 2071 and L1641 S3 MMS 1. The extended SMA (eSMA) probes structure at angular resolutions up to 0.2", revealing protostellar disks on scales of 200 AU. Continuum flux measurements on these scales indica…
The initial velocity dispersion of newborn stars is a major unconstrained aspect of star formation theory. Using near-infrared spectra obtained with the APOGEE spectrograph, we show that the velocity dispersion of young (1-2 Myr) stars in NGC 1333 is 0.92+/-0.12 km/s after correcting for measurement uncertainties and the effect of binaries. This velocity dispersion is consistent with the virial velocity of the region and the diffuse gas velocity dispersion, but significantly larger than the velocity dispersion of the dense, star-forming cores, which have a sub-virial velocity dispersion of 0.5…
Most massive galaxies show emission lines that can be characterized as LINERs. To what extent this emission is related to AGNs or to stellar processes is still an open question. In this paper, we analysed a sample of such galaxies to study the central region in terms of nuclear and circumnuclear emission lines, as well as the stellar component properties. For this reason, we selected 10 massive ($σ$ > 200 km/s) nearby (d < 31 Mpc) galaxies and observed them with the IFU/GMOS (integral field unit/Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph) spectrograph on the Gemini South Telescope. The data were analyse…
It is now well-established that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) can be determined from the absorption line spectra of old stellar systems, and this has been used to measure the IMF and its variation across the early-type galaxy population. Previous work focused on measuring the slope of the IMF over one or more stellar mass intervals, implicitly assuming that this is a good description of the IMF and that the IMF has a universal low-mass cutoff. In this work we consider more flexible IMFs, including two-component power-laws with a variable low-mass cutoff and a general non-parametric m…
We study the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3998. This galaxy is known to host a low-power radio AGN with a kpc-size one-sided jet and a large, nearly polar HI disc. It is therefore a good system to study to understand the relation between the availability of cold-gas and the triggering of AGNs in galaxies. Our new WSRT data reveal two faint, S-shaped radio lobes extending out to $\sim$10 kpc from the galaxy centre. Remarkably, we find that the inner HI disc warps back towards the stellar mid-plane in a way that mirrors the warping of the radio lobes. We suggest that the polar HI disc was accret…
We present new 3 mm observations of the ionized gas toward the nuclear starburst in the nearby (D ~ 3.5 Mpc) galaxy NGC 253. With ALMA, we detect emission from the H40-alpha and He40-alpha lines in the central 200 pc of this galaxy on spatial scales of ~4 pc. The recombination line emission primarily originates from a population of approximately a dozen embedded super star clusters in the early stages of formation. We find that emission from these clusters is characterized by electron temperatures ranging from 7000-10000 K and measure an average singly-ionized helium abundance <Y+> = 0.25 +/- …
We investigate the compact, early-type galaxy NGC 1281 with integral field unit observations to map the stellar LOSVD out to 5 effective radii and construct orbit-based dynamical models to constrain its dark and luminous matter content. Under the assumption of mass-follows-light, the H-band stellar mass-to-light ratio (M/L) is Υ = 2.7(+-0.1) Υ_{sun}, higher than expected from our stellar population synthesis fits with either a canonical Kroupa (Υ = 1.3 Υ_{sun}) or Salpeter (Υ = 1.7 Υ_{sun}) stellar initial mass function. Such models also cannot reproduce the details of the LOSVD. Models with a…
The majority of spiral and elliptical galaxies in the Universe host very dense and compact stellar systems at their centres known as nuclear star clusters (NSCs). In this work we study the stellar populations and star formation histories (SFH) of the NSCs of six nearby galaxies with stellar masses ranging between $2$ and $8\times10^9~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ (four late-type spirals and two early-types) with high resolution spectroscopy. Our observations are taken with the X-Shooter spectrograph at the VLT. We make use of an empirical simple stellar population (SSP) model grid to fit composite stellar …
We present the resolved stellar populations in the inner and outer halo of the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC~3115. Using deep HST observations, we analyze stars two magnitudes fainter than the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). We study three fields along the minor axis of this galaxy, 19, 37 and 54 kpc from its center -- corresponding to 7, 14, 21 effective radii (r_{e}). Even at these large galactocentric distances, all of the fields are dominated by a relatively enriched population, with the main peak in the metallicity distribution decreasing with radius from [Z/H] ~ -0.5 to -0.65. The fra…
We present the results of a reverberation-mapping program targeting NGC5273, a nearby early-type galaxy with a broad-lined active galactic nucleus. Over the course of the monitoring program, NGC5273 showed strong variability that allowed us to measure time delays in the responses of the broad optical recombination lines to changes in the continuum flux. A weighted average of these measurements results in a black hole mass determination of $M_{\rm BH} = (4.7 \pm 1.6) \times 10^6$ M$_{\odot}$. An estimate of the size of the black hole sphere of influence in NGC5273 puts it just at the limit of t…
NGC7252, which is one of the nearest major-merger galaxy remnants, is an ideal laboratory to study the processes inherent to the transformation of disc galaxies to ellipticals as observed about ~1Gyr after the collision. We obtained wide-field IFU spectroscopy with the VLT-VIMOS integral-field spectrograph covering the central 50"x50" of NGC7252 to map the stellar and ionised gas kinematics, and the distribution and conditions of the ionised gas, revealing the extent of ongoing star formation and recent star formation history. We find that the inner gas disc is not counter-rotating with respec…
We present the VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (VEGAS), which is designed to obtain deep multiband photometry in g, r, i, of about one hundred nearby galaxies down to 27.3, 26.8, and 26 mag/arcsec^2 respectively, using the ESO facility VST/OmegaCAM. The goals of the survey are 1) to map the light distribution up to ten effective radii, r_e, 2) to trace color gradients and surface brightness fluctuation gradients out to a few r_e for stellar population characterization, and 3) to obtain a full census of the satellite systems (globular clusters and dwarf galaxies) out to 20% of the galaxy virial ra…
The nearby group centered on its bright central galaxy NGC 1407 has been suggested to be an unusually dark system from previous kinematic studies. It is also known for hosting a bright galaxy, NGC 1400, with a large radial velocity (1200 km s$^{-1}$) with respect to the group center. Previous ROSAT X-ray observations revealed an extended region of enhanced surface brightness just eastward of NGC 1400. We investigate the NGC 1407/1400 complex with XMM-Newton and Chandra observations. We find that the temperature and metallicity of the enhanced region are different (cooler and more metal rich) t…
We present Herschel dust continuum, James Clerk Maxwell Telescope CO(3-2) observations and a search for [CII] 158 micron and [OI] 63 micron spectral line emission for the brightest early-type dwarf satellite of Andromeda, NGC 205. While direct gas measurements (Mgas ~ 1.5e+6 Msun, HI + CO(1-0)) have proven to be inconsistent with theoretical predictions of the current gas reservoir in NGC 205 (> 1e+7 Msun), we revise the missing interstellar medium mass problem based on new gas mass estimates (CO(3-2), [CII], [OI]) and indirect measurements of the interstellar medium content through dust conti…
I report the discovery of a transient broad-H$α$ point source in the outskirts of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1404, discovered in archival observations taken with the MUSE integral field spectrograph. The H$α$ line width of 1950 km s$^{-1}$ FWHM, and luminosity of (4.1$\pm$0.1)$\times$10$^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$, are consistent with a nova outburst, and the source is not visible in MUSE data obtained nine months later. A transient soft X-ray source was detected at the same position (within $<$1 arcsec), 14 years before the H$α$ transient. If the X-ray and H$α$ emission are from the same object,…
We present medium-resolution (R $\sim$ 4000) YJ, H \& K band spectroscopy of candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) in NGC~346, the most active star-formation region in the metal-poor (Z = 1/5 Z$_{\sun}$) Small Magellanic Cloud. The spectra were obtained with the KMOS (K-Band Multi Object Spectrograph) integral field instrument on the Very Large Telescope. From our initial sample of 18 candidate high-mass YSOs previously identified from mid-IR photometry and radiative transfer model fits to their spectral energy distributions, approximately half were resolved into multiple components by our in…
We present the X-ray point source population of NGC 7457 based on 124 ks of Chandra observations. Previous deep Chandra observations of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in early-type galaxies have typically targeted the large populations of massive galaxies. NGC 7457 is a nearby, early-type galaxy with a stellar luminosity of $1.7\times10^{10} L_{K\odot}$, allowing us to investigate the populations in a relatively low mass galaxy. We classify the detected X-ray sources into field LMXBs, globular cluster LMXBs, and background AGN based on identifying optical counterparts in new HST/ACS images. W…
