A Potential Galaxy Threshing System in the COSMOS Field
Aussel, H.; Sanders, D. B.; Murayama, T.; Taniguchi, Y.; Giavalisco, M.; Koda, J.; Schinnerer, E.; Elvis, M.; Lilly, S.; Scoville, N.; Okamura, S.; Koekemoer, A.; Le Fèvre, O.; Impey, C.; Mobasher, B.; Renzini, A.; Arimoto, N.; Sheth, K.; Sasaki, S. S.; Nagao, T.; Shioya, Y.; Rich, M.; Miyazaki, S.; Ohta, K.; Ajiki, M.; Komiyama, Y.; Kaifu, N.; Karoji, H.; Hainline, L.
Japan, United States, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland
Abstract
We report on the discovery of a new potential galaxy threshing system in the COSMOS 2 square degree field using the prime-focus camera, Suprime-Cam, on the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope. This system consists of a giant elliptical galaxy with MV~-21.6 and a tidally disrupted satellite galaxy with MV~-17.7 at a photometric redshift of z~0.08. This redshift is consistent with the spectroscopic redshift of 0.079 for the giant elliptical galaxy obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) archive. The luminosity masses of the two galaxies are 3.7×1012 and 3.1×109 Msolar, respectively. The distance between the two galaxies is greater than 100 kpc. The two tidal tails emanating from the satellite galaxy extend over 150 kpc. This system would be the second well-defined galaxy threshing system found so far.
Based on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.