Diffuse Light in the Virgo Cluster

By C. Mihos, P. Harding, J. Feldmeier, H. Morrison. 2005

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We present deep optical imaging of the inner ~1.°5 × 1.°5 of the Virgo Cluster to search for diffuse intracluster light (ICL). Our image reaches a 1 σ depth of μV = 28.5 mag arcsec-2, which is 1.5 mag arcsec-2 deeper than previous surveys, and reveals an intricate web of diffuse ICL. We see several long (>100 kpc) tidal streamers, as well as a myriad of smaller scale tidal tails and bridges between galaxies. The diffuse halo of M87 is traced out to nearly 200 kpc, appearing very irregular on these scales, while significant diffuse light is also detected around the M84/M86 pair. Several galaxies in the core are embedded in common envelopes, suggesting they are true physical subgroups. The complex substructure of Virgo's diffuse ICL reflects the hierarchical nature of cluster assembly, rather than being the product of smooth accretion around a central galaxy.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4d05ef2f6e75bdde46dfd1f4e84a66d613533d48

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What determines satellite galaxy disruption (2009, background): “Additionally, ICL has been observed to contain significant structure, including tidal streams (Mihos et al. 2005).”
Diffuse Optical Light in Galaxy Clusters. II. Correlations with Cluster Properties (2007, background): “There are ∼ 4 examples of these large features in the literature (Gregg & West 1998; Calcáneo-Roldán et al. 2000; Feldmeier et al. 2004; Mihos et al. 2005).”
THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY (NGVS). I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY (2012, methodology): “…is covered by the SDSS (York et al. 2000) in the ugriz bands; also to be mentioned here is the dedicated optical survey of the diffuse intracluster light (ICL) in Virgo carried out with the 0.6 m Burrell-Schmidt telescope (e.g., Mihos et al. 2005; Janowiecki et al. 2010; Rudick et al. 2010).”
Erratum: From dwarf spheroidals to cD galaxies: simulating the galaxy population in a ΛCDM cosmology (2010, background): “Recent observations of diffuse intracluster light and of intracluster stars (Zibetti et al. 2005; Gerhard et al. 2005; Mihos et al. 2005; Gonzalez et al. 2005; Aguerri et al. 2006; Gonzalez et al. 2007; McGee & Balogh 2010) indicate that a significant fraction of all cluster stars lie between the…”
GALAXIES AT THE EXTREMES: ULTRA-DIFFUSE GALAXIES IN THE VIRGO CLUSTER (2015, methodology): “It appears as a nucleated LSB galaxy with long, arcing tidal stream that runs NE-SW through the galaxy and extending off the frame in Figure 1 (the full extent of the stream can be seen in Figure 1 of Mihos et al. 2005).”
First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the stellar mass content of groups and clusters of galaxies (2017, methodology): “…attempted for the SDSS with stacking methods (Zibetti et al. 2005), with targeted observations of individual objects in the local Universe (e.g. Mihos et al. 2005), as well as with HST at intermediate redshifts in the Frontier Field and CLASH1 clusters (Montes & Trujillo 2014; DeMaio et al.…”
WIDE-FIELD PRECISION KINEMATICS OF THE M87 GLOBULAR CLUSTER SYSTEM (2011, background): “Janowiecki et al. (2010) cast doubt on the existence of this structure, but did identify other small stellar substructures in the outer halo of M87 (see also Mihos et al. 2005; Rudick et al. 2010).”
Ongoing assembly of massive galaxies by major merging in large groups and clusters from the SDSS (2007, background): “Indirect measures such as the presence of faint tidal debris or shells around many local massive ellipticals (vanDokkum 2005; Mihos et al. 2005), the isophotal properties of giant ellipticals (Kang et al. 2007), the lackof evolution of the stellar mass-size relation of red spheroids sincez = 1…”
FORTY-SEVEN MILKY WAY-SIZED, EXTREMELY DIFFUSE GALAXIES IN THE COMA CLUSTER (2014, methodology): “We are also looking for streams and tidal features, inspired by the beautiful deep imaging of the Virgo cluster of Mihos et al. (2005).”
The importance of mergers for the origin of intracluster stars in cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters (2007, background): “…than 2 per cent; Castro-Rodrı́guez et al. 2003; Feldmeier et al. 2003b) to that of Virgo-like clusters (Arnaboldi et al. 2003; Feldmeier et al. 2003a; Mihos et al. 2005 ≈ 5–10 per cent) up to the most massive clusters (Gonzalez et al. 2000; Feldmeier et al. 2002; Gal-Yam et al. 2003; Feldmeier et…”
STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF ELLIPTICAL AND SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2008, background): “– Mihos et al. (2005); 15.”
The ATLAS3D project - XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images (2014, methodology): “…and to familiar galaxies, disclosing around them so far unknown prominent but low surface brightness (LSB) stellar structures, such as extended stellar halos and tidal tails (e.g. Mihos et al. 2005; Janowiecki et al. 2010; Martı́nezDelgado et al. 2010; Roediger et al. 2011; van Dokkum et al. 2014).”
Physical properties and environments of nearby galaxies (2009, background): “Mihos et al. (2005) found that the Virgo Cluster has a particularly dramatic ICL component, with visible streams and other features that might suggest a tidal stripping or merging scenario for its formation.”
Galactic accretion and the outer structure of galaxies in the CDM model (2013, background): “…& Schmidt 1964; Oemler 1976; Thuan & Romanishin 1981; Schombert 1988; Graham et al. 1996; Lin & Mohr 2004; Gonzalez, Zabludoff, & Zaritsky 2005; Mihos et al. 2005; Krick, Bernstein, & Pimbblet 2006; Donzelli, Muriel, & Madrid 2011) which is also thought to originate from the stripping and…”
A REVISED PARALLEL-SEQUENCE MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF GALAXIES: STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF S0 AND SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2011, background): “Remarkably deep imaging observations by Mihos (2011) and Mihos et al. (2005, 2009, 2011) reveal this background light in the Virgo cluster.”
The Hierarchical Build-Up of Massive Galaxies and the Intracluster Light since z = 1 (2007, background): “Indeed, recent observations of the VirgoCluster indicate that there is significant amounts of ICL surrounding several satellite galaxies (Mihos et al. 2005), suggesting that noncentral ICL could be ubiquitous.”
Shredded Galaxies as the Source of Diffuse Intrahalo Light on Varying Scales (2007, background): “…values is significant but fIHLvalues range from 10% to 40% (Thuan & Kormendy 1977; Melnick et al. 1977; Uson et al. 1991; Bernstein et al. 1995; Calcáneo-Roldán et al. 2000; Lin & Mohr 2004; Feldmeier et al. 2004a; Mihos et al. 2005; Zibetti et al. 2005; Krick et al. 2006; Seigar et al. 2007).”
VLA IMAGING OF VIRGO SPIRALS IN ATOMIC GAS (VIVA). I. THE ATLAS AND THE H i PROPERTIES (2009, background): “…H i (e.g., NGC 4438; Cayatte et al. 1990 and NGC 4402; Crowl et al. 2005), while this galaxy is H i rich and (2) in a recent deep optical image of this region (Mihos et al. 2005), this galaxy appears to be located outside of a huge common envelope of intracluster light (ICL) around the M86 group.”