Dwarf and Giant Elliptical Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

Dr. Terry Bridges
Anglo-Australian Observatory, Sydney, Australia

Time
Tue. December 10, 2002     1:30 PM     Stirling A

Abstract

I'll present the results of a major international (Australia-Europe-Japan-US) study of dwarf and giant elliptical galaxies in Coma, a nearby, rich cluster of galaxies. I'll first discuss why galaxy clusters are good places to learn about when and how galaxies form, and how they are affected and transformed by various cluster processes. I'll then present our wide-field CCD imaging, covering a large area of the Coma cluster, including the cluster center and the lower-density outskirts. We have used this imaging to select several hundred cluster candidate galaxies for followup multi-fibre spectroscopy, and have spectra for nearly 300 confirmed Coma members. The photometry and spectroscopy is used to determine galaxy ages, chemical composition, morphology, kinematics, and luminosity functions, and the dependence of these on location in the cluster. Our results are used to compare the dwarf and giant galaxies in Coma, and with more distant clusters, and finally to learn more about the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies in general.

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