Pinning down the ram-pressure-induced halt of star formation in the Virgo cluster spiral galaxy NGC 4388 A joint inversion of spectroscopic and photometric data

  • Pappalardo, C.
  • Lancon, A.
  • Vollmer, B.
  • Ocvirk, P.
  • Boissier, S.
  • Boselli, A.
Publication date
May 2010
Publisher
EDP Sciences

Abstract

International audienceContext. In a galaxy cluster, the evolution of spiral galaxies depends on their cluster environment. Ram pressure due to the rapid motion of a spiral galaxy within the hot intracluster medium removes the galaxy's interstellar medium from the outer disk. Once the gas has left the disk, star formation stops. The passive evolution of the stellar populations should be detectable in optical spectroscopy and multi-wavelength photometry. Aims. The goal of our study is to recover the stripping age of the Virgo spiral galaxy NGC 4388, i.e. the time elapsed since the halt of star formation in the outer galactic disk using a combined analysis of optical spectra and photometry. Methods. We performed VLT FORS2 long-slit spectroscop...

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