Deep UV Imaging of Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster
Observations and Image Reduction
- Used the Astro-1
UIT to image part of the Fornax cluster
- 1000s image covering 1/3 degree
- Taken through 1520 angstrom (FUV) and 2490 angstrom (NUV) filters
- Galaxies were analysed using the IRAF and GASP software
- Image was scanned by eye for galaxies and then positions of known galaxies were searched
Discussion
- Sky background through the VUV is roughly 25.0 mag arcsec
vs. 22.0 through the B filter
- Should be conducive to the detection of LSB galaxies
- Detected ten galaxies through the NUV
- 3 luminous early-type galaxies
- 2 dwarf ellipticals
- 5 potential background galaxies (incl. 1 never before catalogued)
- Galaxy colors show a large range
- no significant UV excess
- No evidence for nuclear UV sources dominating galaxies
- Indicates NUV observations should be able to detect dwarf galaxies
- Longer exposures with the NUV camera would have been successful at detecting faint objects
- Low sky background in the VUV is real and should be exploited
