Comparative study of compact elliptical galaxies in nearby clusters

SMITH CASTELLI, A.; FAIFER, F.; GONZÁLEZ, N.; FORTE, J. C.

Prato

Congreso; Small Stellar Systems in Tuscany: From Globular Clusters to Dwarf Galaxies and Everything in Between; 2013

Monash University

We present a comparative study of compact elliptical (cE) galaxies identified in different nearby clusters. We aim at giving clues about the origin of this peculiar systems by performing a photometric study of cEs detected in the Virgo cluster (Smith Castelli et al. 2013) and in the NGC 7626 group (Faifer et al., in preparation). We will compare their properties with those displayed by cE galaxies previously studied in the literature, such as M32 and those identified in the Antlia cluster (Smith Castelli et al. 2008, 2012). Our study is based on ACS-HST F475W and F850LP images, as well as on g´, r´, i´ frames obtained with GMOS-Gemini North. We will analyze their color maps, brightness and color profiles, isophotal ellipticity and position angle variations, as well as their location in photometric diagrams such as the color-magnitude and mean-effective-surface-brightness-luminosity ones.