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The Centers of Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Douglas Richstone ,
Karl Gebhardt ,
Alan Dressler ,
Sandra Faber ,
Carl Grillmair ,
John Kormendy ,
Y.-I. Byun ,
Tod Lauer ,
Edward Ajhar  and
Scott Tremaine
Douglas Richstone
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan
Karl Gebhardt
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan
Alan Dressler
Affiliation:
Carnegie Observatories
Sandra Faber
Affiliation:
Lick Board of Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
Carl Grillmair
Affiliation:
Lick Board of Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
John Kormendy
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii
Y.-I. Byun
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii
Tod Lauer
Affiliation:
National Optical Astronomy Observatories
Edward Ajhar
Affiliation:
National Optical Astronomy Observatories
Scott Tremaine
Affiliation:
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

Extract

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This report has two major purposes. First, we summarize here work by our team on the determination of the density of stars near the centers of a large sample of galaxies observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. There appear to be two varieties of elliptical galaxies (and bulges). The stellar densities near the centers of small elliptical galaxies exceed those of globular clusters and the density of the universe at the recombination epoch. The radial dependence of density and implied gravitational force seems inconsistent (at least in the case of the smaller elliptical galaxies) with a long-lived triaxial configuration. It therefore seems likely that the central regions of less luminous elliptical galaxies are axisymmetric. For the more luminous ellipticals, the central densities are far more modest and the presence of a distinct core (defined below) is generally well established. Even in these cases, however, we find few if any galaxies with analytic (Taylor expandable) stellar densities near the center.

Type
New Observations with HST
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 174: Dynamical Evolution of Stars Clusters , 1996 , pp. 53 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996 

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