Special Seminar | Sophie Penger (University of Cologne)

Speaker: Sophie Penger (University of Cologne)
Title: Tidal disruption of the dwarf galaxy VCC 1249: Planetary Nebulae as tracers of galaxy interaction

Abstract: The fate of a satellite galaxy in a major merger strongly depends on the shape of its dark matter (DM) potential. Halos with cored DM distributions are stripped more efficiently than cuspy ones (e.g. Peñarrubia et al., 2010). The dwarf irregular galaxy VCC 1249, located in the Virgo Subcluster B within the extended halo of the massive galaxy M49, is an excellent observational laboratory to study such interactions. It exhibits a tail of tidally stripped material, traced by H I gas, H II regions, and planetary nebulae (PNe).
In this talk, I will present new kinematic data of VCC 1249 from VLT-MUSE. I will cover results from applying the PN identification method by Roth et al. (2021), which results in the detection of 13 new PNe. I will discuss the distribution of their velocities, and their magnitudes, the latter allowing us to estimate the planetary nebula luminosity function. We determine an updated luminosity-specific PN number of VCC 1249 by combining the MUSE data with wide-field photometry from the Next Generation Virgo Survey. Furthermore, I analyse the stellar and gas kinematics of VCC 1249.
Our results suggest that about half of the detected PNe are associated with M49’s halo, while the other half displays velocities very close to the systemic velocity of VCC 1249. The spatially resolved kinematics of the dwarf confirm the tidal tail towards M49 that was previously identified from deep photometry. By combining the now-expanded PN catalogue with spatially resolved kinematics, this work will be the basis for a refined dynamical model of the VCC 1249 – M49 interaction.

• Date:
  March 26, 2025, 11 a.m. – noon
  
  
• Location:

  AIP; Schwarzschildhaus, Lecture hall

  
  
• Contact:
  lwistotzki@aip.de