HST Pixel Analysis of NGC 5195

  • Published : 2011.04.05

Abstract

We report the HST pixel analysis results of the interacting S0 galaxy, NGC 5195 (M51B), using the HST/ACS images in the F435W, F555W and F814W (BVI) bands. After 4x4 binning of the HST/ACS images to secure sufficient signal-to-noise ratio for each pixel, we derive several quantities describing the pixel color-magnitude diagram (pCMD) of NGC 5195, such as blue/red color cut, red pixel sequence parameters, blue pixel sequence parameters and blue-to-red pixel ratio. Those parameters reflect the internal properties of NGC 5195 like age, metallicity, dust content and galaxy morphology. To investigate the spatial distributions of stellar populations, we divide pixel stellar populations using the pixel color-color diagram and population synthesis models. As a result, we find that the tidal interaction with NGC 5194 significantly affects the stellar populations in their dust content and mean stellar age.

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