Two confirmed compact elliptical galaxies in the Antlia cluster

A. V. SMITH CASTELLI; F. R. FAIFER; L. P. BASSINO; G. A. ROMERO; S. A. CELLONE; T. RICHTLER

La Plata, Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunion Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2009

Facultad de Ciencias Astronomicas y Geofisicas-UNLP

Abstract. We confirm the existence of two compact elliptical (cE) galax-ies in the central region of the Antlia cluster through MAGELLAN-MIKE and GEMINI-GMOS spectra. Only about a dozen galaxies of this rare type are known today up to a distance of 100 Mpc. With this finding, Antlia becomes the nearest galaxy cluster harbouring more than one cE galaxy among its galaxy population. One of these galaxies shows evidence of interaction with one of the giant ellipticals that dominate the central region of the cluster.