TY - GEN
T1 - The central regions of early-type galaxies
AU - Jordán, Andrés
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - The ACS Virgo and Fornax cluster surveys present homogeneous HST/ACS observations of 143 early-type galaxies and their globular cluster systems in the Virgo and Fornax clusters. I briefly describe these surveys and present some of their recent results on the properties of the central regions of galaxies. In particular, we have shown that on nuclear scales, galaxies are found to exhibit a gradual progression from a light “deficit” (cores) to a light “excess” (stellar nuclei), while on larger scales the brightness profiles of galaxies are accurately described by Sérsic models. Our observations suggest that a generic by-product of galaxy formation might be the creation of a central massive object — either a supermassive black hole or a compact stellar nucleus — that contains a mean fraction ∼0.2% of the total galactic mass.
AB - The ACS Virgo and Fornax cluster surveys present homogeneous HST/ACS observations of 143 early-type galaxies and their globular cluster systems in the Virgo and Fornax clusters. I briefly describe these surveys and present some of their recent results on the properties of the central regions of galaxies. In particular, we have shown that on nuclear scales, galaxies are found to exhibit a gradual progression from a light “deficit” (cores) to a light “excess” (stellar nuclei), while on larger scales the brightness profiles of galaxies are accurately described by Sérsic models. Our observations suggest that a generic by-product of galaxy formation might be the creation of a central massive object — either a supermassive black hole or a compact stellar nucleus — that contains a mean fraction ∼0.2% of the total galactic mass.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85035137220&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-90-481-3400-7_18
DO - 10.1007/978-90-481-3400-7_18
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85035137220
SN - 9780387727677
SN - 9780387876207
SN - 9781402055720
SN - 9781402069321
SN - 9781402088674
SN - 9781402091896
SN - 9781441981608
SN - 9781441983688
SN - 9783540758259
SN - 9783642033230
SN - 9783642103216
SN - 9783642103513
SN - 9783642113406
SN - 9783642172502
SN - 9789048133994
SN - 9789048133994
SN - 9789048134984
T3 - Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings
SP - 95
EP - 98
BT - Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings
A2 - Macchetto, F. Duccio
PB - Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
T2 - 41st Symposium of the European Space Agency : The Impact of HST on European Astronomy, 2007
Y2 - 29 May 2007 through 1 June 2007
ER -