Clarification of the Nature of the Galaxy [CFC97] Cen 05

Abstract

The galaxy [CFC97] Cen 05 has in the past been considered an H I-rich dwarf galaxy in the nearby Centaurus A group. We have used Australia Telescope Compact Array observations to show that the H I associated with [CFC97] Cen 05 by Côté et al. is most likely a Galactic high-velocity cloud that is centered ~17' from the optical image of the galaxy. At the optical location of the galaxy, which is not the one tabulated by Banks et al., there is no indication of the presence of H I for velocities less than the upper limit of the H I Parkes All-Sky Survey at ~12,500 km s^-1. In addition, WFPC2 images of [CFC97] Cen 05 obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope archive reveal that this galaxy is in fact not a dwarf at all, but rather is a distant background spiral not associated with the Centaurus A group.

Based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.