Young, Blue, and Isolated Stellar Systems in the Virgo Cluster. II. A New Class of Stellar System

Jones, M. G. K.; Sand, David J.; Bellazzini, M.; Spekkens, Kristine; Karunakaran, Ananthan; Adams, Elizabeth A. K.; Battaglia, G.; Beccari, G.; Bennet, Paul; Cannon, John; Cresci, G.; Crnojević, Denija; Caldwell, Nelson; Fuson, Jackson; Guhathakurta, Puragra; Haynes, Martha P.; Inoue, John L.; Magrini, L.; Muñoz, Ricardo R.; Mutlu-Pakdil, Burçin; Seth, Anil; Strader, Jay; Toloba, Elisa; Zaritsky, Dennis

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac7c6c

Cited by 3 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 126 publications

(223 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Here we show (Section 4) that ALFALFA Virgo 7 has a definite stellar counterpart that is over 20,000 times less massive than the H I and is made up exclusively of stars that recently formed in situ. The stellar properties of this object closely match those of the recently identified blue blobs (Jones et al 2022b). BC6 differs only in its exceptional H I content.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…The blue blob candidates presented in Jones et al (2022b) arose from a cursory search (Sand et al 2015) of the Virgo cluster, and there are likely additional examples. In an attempt to identify additional objects, we began a visual search of the available imaging within the cluster from the Next Generation Virgo cluster Survey (NGVS; Ferrarese et al 2012), the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS; Dey et al 2019), and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX; Martin et al 2005).…”

Section: Identification Of Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sand et al (2015) searched for other objects with similar optical and UV morphology to SECCO 1, identifying five additional candidates in Virgo. With Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, plus Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), GBT, and Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations (Jones et al 2022a(Jones et al , 2022bBellazzini et al 2022), we demonstrated that four 11 of these are analogous to SECCO 1 (though not all are H I-rich) and argued that they represent a new class of object, which we will refer to simply as "blue blobs." The only viable mechanism to explain both the isolation and young ages of blue blobs is high-speed ram pressure stripping of H Ibearing galaxies falling into the cluster (Jones et al 2022b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…With Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, plus Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), GBT, and Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations (Jones et al 2022a(Jones et al , 2022bBellazzini et al 2022), we demonstrated that four 11 of these are analogous to SECCO 1 (though not all are H I-rich) and argued that they represent a new class of object, which we will refer to simply as "blue blobs." The only viable mechanism to explain both the isolation and young ages of blue blobs is high-speed ram pressure stripping of H Ibearing galaxies falling into the cluster (Jones et al 2022b). Even so, it is remarkable that they survived traversing hundreds of kpc through the hot ICM and may be the first examples of isolated star-forming clouds supported (in part) by external pressure (Burkhart & Loeb 2016;Bellazzini et al 2018;Calura et al 2020;Jones et al 2022b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The only viable mechanism to explain both the isolation and young ages of blue blobs is high-speed ram pressure stripping of H Ibearing galaxies falling into the cluster (Jones et al 2022b). Even so, it is remarkable that they survived traversing hundreds of kpc through the hot ICM and may be the first examples of isolated star-forming clouds supported (in part) by external pressure (Burkhart & Loeb 2016;Bellazzini et al 2018;Calura et al 2020;Jones et al 2022b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Dark No More: The Low-luminosity Stellar Counterpart of a Dark Cloud in the Virgo Cluster*

Jones,

Janowiecki,

Dey

et al. 2024

ApJL

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have discovered the stellar counterpart to the ALFALFA Virgo 7 cloud complex, which has been thought to be optically dark and nearly star-free since its discovery in 2007. This ∼190 kpc long chain of enormous atomic gas clouds (M H i ∼ 109 M ⊙) is embedded in the hot intracluster medium of the Virgo galaxy cluster but is isolated from any galaxy. Its faint, blue stellar counterpart, BC6, was identified in a visual search of archival optical and UV imaging. Follow-up observations with the Green Bank Telescope, Hobby–Eberly Telescope, and Hubble Space Telescope demonstrate that this faint counterpart is at the same velocity as the atomic gas, actively forming stars, and metal-rich (12 + (O/H) = 8.58 ± 0.25). We estimate its stellar mass to be only log ( M * / M ⊙ ) ∼ 4.4 , making it one of the most gas-rich stellar systems known. Aside from its extraordinary gas content, the properties of BC6 are entirely consistent with those of a recently identified class of young, low-mass, isolated, and star-forming clouds in Virgo that appear to have formed via extreme ram pressure stripping events. We expand the existing discussion of the origin of this structure and suggest NGC 4522 as a likely candidate; however, the current evidence is not fully consistent with any of our proposed progenitor galaxies. We anticipate that other “dark” gas clouds in Virgo may have similarly faint, star-forming counterparts. We aim to identify these through the help of a citizen science search of the entire cluster.

show abstract

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Identification Of Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Dark No More: The Low-luminosity Stellar Counterpart of a Dark Cloud in the Virgo Cluster*

Jones,

Janowiecki,

Dey

et al. 2024

ApJL

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

An enigmatic 380 kpc long linear collimated galactic tail

Zaritsky

Crossett

Jaffé

et al. 2023

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a serendipitously-detected system consisting of an S0/a galaxy, which we refer to as the ‘Kite’, and a highly-collimated tail of gas and stars that extends over 380 kpc and contains pockets of star formation. In its length, narrowness, and linearity the Kite’s tail is an extreme example relative to known tails. The Kite (PGC 1000273) has a companion galaxy, Mrk 0926 (PGC 070409), which together comprise a binary galaxy system in which both galaxies host active galactic nuclei. Despite this systems being previously searched for signs of tidal interactions, the tail had not been discovered prior to our identification as part of the validation process of the SMUDGes survey for low surface brightness galaxies. We confirm the kinematic association between various Hα knots along the tail, a small galaxy, and the Kite galaxy using optical spectroscopy obtained with the Magellan telescope and measure a velocity gradient along the tail. The Kite shares characteristics common to those formed via ram pressure stripping (‘jellyfish’ galaxies) and formed via tidal interactions. However, both scenarios face significant challenges that we discuss, leaving open the question of how such an extreme tail formed. We propose that the tail resulted from a three-body interaction from which the lowest-mass galaxy was ejected at high velocity.

show abstract

Introducing the Condor array telescope II – deep imaging observations of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 5907 and the NGC 5866 Group: yet another view of the iconic stellar stream

Lanzetta,

Gromoll,

Shara

et al. 2024

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We used the Condor array telescope to obtain deep imaging observations through the luminance filter of the entirety of the NGC 5866 Group, including a very extended region surrounding the galaxy NGC 5907 and its stellar stream. We find that the stellar stream consists of a single curved structure that stretches 220 kpc from a brighter eastern stream to a fainter western stream that bends to the north and then curls back toward the galaxy. This result runs contrary to a previous claim of a second loop of the stellar stream but is consistent with another previous description of the overall morphology of the stream. We further find that: (1) an extension of the western stream appears to bifurcate near its apex, (2) there is an apparent gap of ≈6 kpc in the western stream due east of the galaxy, (3) contrary to a previous claim, there is no evidence of the remnant of a progenitor galaxy within the eastern stream, although (4) there are many other possible progenitor galaxies, (5) there is another structure that, if it is at the distance of the galaxy, stretches 240 kpc and contains two very large, very low-surface-brightness ‘patches’ of emission, one of which was noted previously and another of which was not. We note the number and variety of stellar streams in the vicinity of NGC 5907 and the apparent gap in the western stream, which may be indicative of a dark sub-halo or satellite in the vicinity of the galaxy.

show abstract

Young, Blue, and Isolated Stellar Systems in the Virgo Cluster. II. A New Class of Stellar System

Cited by 3 publications

References 126 publications

Dark No More: The Low-luminosity Stellar Counterpart of a Dark Cloud in the Virgo Cluster*

Dark No More: The Low-luminosity Stellar Counterpart of a Dark Cloud in the Virgo Cluster*

An enigmatic 380 kpc long linear collimated galactic tail

Introducing the Condor array telescope II – deep imaging observations of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 5907 and the NGC 5866 Group: yet another view of the iconic stellar stream

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About