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Spectroscopy and photometry of elliptical galaxies. I - A new distance estimator
Abstract
Kinematic and photometric data have been obtained for 97 elliptical galaxies in six rich clusters. These data show that ellipticals describe a plane in three dimensions which, when viewed edge-on, projects a smaller scatter than the Faber-Jackson relationship between luminosity and velocity dispersion σ. This plane is approximately given by L ∝ σ8/3Σe-3/5, where Σe is the surface brightness within the effective radius Ae. The authors present a new photometric parameter Dn, the diameter which encloses an integrated surface brightness Σ, that correlates as well with σ as any linear combination of L and Σ. It is shown that the Dn-σ relation can be used to find relative distances of ellipticals with rms errors of ⪉25% for a single galaxy and ⪉10% for rich clusters. A poorer correlation between the line strength indicator Mg2 and Dn provides an independent, though less accurate, distance indicator. The new σ and Mg2 distance estimators are used to determine an infall of the Local Group toward the Virgo Cluster.
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Cited by
Cappellari, M., Scott, N., Alatalo, K., Blitz, L., Bois, M., Bournaud, F., Bureau, M., Crocker, A. F., Davies, R. L., Davis, T. A., et al. (2013) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt562 · Cited by 734
Self-citationStructure and Formation of Elliptical and Spheroidal Galaxies
Bender, R. (2016) · doi:10.15781/t28g8fm0v · Cited by 555
Tully, R. B., Courtois, H. M., & Sorce, J. G. (2016) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/2/50 · Cited by 513
Feedback in simulations of disc-galaxy major mergers
Cox, T. J., Jonsson, P., Primack, J. R., & Somerville, R. S. (2006) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11107.x · Cited by 331
Ferguson, H. C., & Binggeli, B. (1994) · The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review · doi:10.1007/bf01208252 · Cited by 317
Metadata
- Authors
- Dressler, A., Lynden-Bell, D., Burstein, D., Davies, R. L., Faber, S. M., Terlevich, R., & Wegner, G.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 1987-02
- Volume
- 313
- Pages
- 42
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W1980708053
- Cited by
- 1,256
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 19.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Dressler, A., Lynden-Bell, D., Burstein, D., Davies, R. L., Faber, S. M., Terlevich, R., & Wegner, G. (1987). Spectroscopy and photometry of elliptical galaxies. I - A new distance estimator. The Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1086/164947
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