J/AJ/116/102 NGC 5548 BR photometry (Tyson+ 1998)
Deep optical imaging of the bright Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548:
a long, very low surface brightness tail.
Tyson J.A., Fischer P., Guhathakurta P., McIlroy P., Wenk R.,
Huchra J., Macri L., Neuschaefer L., Sarajedini V., Glazebrook K.,
Ratnatunga K., Griffiths R.
<Astron. J. 116, 102 (1998)>
=1998AJ....116..102T 1998AJ....116..102T (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, Seyfert ; Photometry
Keywords: galaxies: clusters: general - galaxies: individual: NGC 5548 -
galaxies: Seyfert
Abstract:
Deep Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera (WFC-1) imaging of a
region 3.7' east of the V=13mag Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548 in the F555W
and F785LP bands, and deep ground-based V and I imaging, show a new
extended, blue, low surface brightness structure, apparently a remnant
of a tidal interaction associated with NGC 5548. If this straight, low
surface brightness (V∼27-28mag/arcsec2) tidal tail is associated
with NGC 5548, it extends at least 80kpc from it and has an absolute
magnitude of M_V~-16.4 (H0=65km/s/Mpc). Previous imaging surveys of
Seyfert galaxies would have missed such low surface brightness tails.
Morphologically similar to some brighter tails seen in other
interacting systems and in simulations of merging galaxies, this faint
tail is a useful diagnostic of an earlier interaction and of the
progenitors' halo-to-disk mass ratios. Luminous ripples and a brighter
tail wrapped around the galaxy are seen in the inner 1-10kpc region.
Unresolved blue objects in the long tail have the colors and absolute
magnitudes of young globular clusters. Taken together, the two tails
and other features suggest that two spirals merged less than ∼1Gyr
ago. The inner luminosity profile of NGC 5548 is a good fit to a de
Vaucouleurs profile with reff=5.8kpc. Recent simulations of merged
galaxies with high-mass halos fail to form lasting tidal tails,
suggesting that the NGC 5548 progenitor spirals had modest halo
masses.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 57 99 BR photometry in the NGC 5548 field
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See also:
J/A+A/314/43 : NGC 5548 Profile variability (Kollatschny+ 1996)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 11 A11 --- [TFG98] Star name (NGC 5548-NN)
13- 14 I2 h RAh Right ascension (J2000.0)
16- 17 I2 min RAm Right ascension (J2000.0)
19- 23 F5.2 s RAs Right ascension (J2000.0)
25 A1 --- DE- Declination sign
26- 27 I2 deg DEd Declination (J2000.0)
29- 30 I2 arcmin DEm Declination (J2000.0)
32- 35 F4.1 arcsec DEs Declination (J2000.0)
37- 41 F5.2 mag Bmag B magnitude
43- 46 F4.2 mag e_Bmag rms uncertainty on Bmag
48- 52 F5.2 mag B-R B-R colour index
54- 57 F4.2 mag e_B-R rms uncertainty on B-R
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Acknowledgements: From AJ electronic version
(End) James Marcout, Patricia Bauer [CDS] 09-Nov-1998