THE EXTENDED SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF GLOBULAR CLUSTERS IN THE CORE OF THE FORNAX CLUSTER

ABSTRACT We report the discovery of a complex extended density enhancement in the Globular Clusters (GCs) in the central ( Mpc2) of the Fornax cluster, corresponding to of the area within 1 core radius. This overdensity connects the GC system of NGC 1399 to most of those of neighboring galaxies with...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Astrophysical journal. Letters 2016-03, Vol.819 (2), p.L31-L31
Main Authors:	D'Abrusco, R., Cantiello, M., Paolillo, M., Pota, V., Napolitano, N. R., Limatola, L., Spavone, M., Grado, A., Iodice, E., Capaccioli, M., Peletier, R., Longo, G., Hilker, M., Mieske, S., Grebel, E. K., Lisker, T., Wittmann, C., Ven, G. van de, Schipani, P., Fabbiano, G.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Clusters Color Density Galaxies galaxies: clusters: individual (Fornax) galaxies: evolution galaxies: individual (NGC 1399) Globular clusters Small scale Spatial distribution Stripping
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	ABSTRACT We report the discovery of a complex extended density enhancement in the Globular Clusters (GCs) in the central ( Mpc2) of the Fornax cluster, corresponding to of the area within 1 core radius. This overdensity connects the GC system of NGC 1399 to most of those of neighboring galaxies within ( kpc) along the W-E direction. The asymmetric density structure suggests that the galaxies in the core of the Fornax cluster experienced a lively history of interactions that have left a clear imprint on the spatial distribution of GCs. The extended central dominant structure is more prominent in the distribution of blue GCs, while red GCs show density enhancements that are more centrally concentrated on the host galaxies. We propose that the relatively small-scale density structures in the red GCs are caused by galaxy-galaxy interactions, while the extensive spatial distribution of blue GCs is due to stripping of GCs from the halos of core massive galaxies by the Fornax gravitational potential. Our investigations are based on density maps of candidate GCs extracted from the multi-band VLT Survey Telescope (VST) survey of Fornax (FDS), identified in a three-dimensional color space and further selected based on their g-band magnitude and morphology.
ISSN:	2041-8205 2041-8213