A supragalactic conundrum: the globular clusters colour pattern in Virgo galaxies

FORTE, JUAN C; CELLONE, SERGIO A; DE ROSSI, MARÍA E; ESCUDERO, CARLOS; FAIFER, FAVIO R; GEISLER, DOUGLAS; GONZÁLEZ, NÉLIDA M; SCALIA, MARÍA C; SESTO, LEANDRO; SMITH CASTELLI, ANALÍA V; VEGA, E IRENE

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019 vol. 482 p. 950 - 964

0035-8711

The presence of systematic modulations in the colour distributions incomposite samples of globular clusters (GCs) associated with galaxies inthe Virgo and Fornax clusters has been reported in a previous work. Inthis paper, we focus on the 27 brightest galaxies in Virgo, and inparticular on NGC 4486, the dominant system in terms of GC population.The new analysis includes ≈7600 cluster candidates brighter than g =24.5 (or T1 ≈ 23.70). The results indicate the presence ofthe characteristic Virgo pattern in these galaxies and that this patternis detectable over a galactocentric range from 3 to 30 kpc in NGC 4486.This finding gives more support to the idea that the pattern has beenthe result of an external, still not identified phenomenon, capable ofsynchronizing the cluster formation in a kind of viral process, and onsupragalactic scales (also having, presumably, an impact on the overallstar formation history in the entire Virgo cluster).