How are S0 galaxies formed? A case of the Sombrero galaxy

  • Published : 2019.04.10

Abstract

S0 galaxies are mostly known to be formed in dense environments from spiral progenitors. Recently, however, a new formation scenario has been suggested that field S0s can be formed from elliptical progenitors. The Sombrero galaxy (M104, NGC 4594) is a massive disk galaxy located in the field environment, and its morphological type has been controversial from Sa to E. Thus, it is an ideal target to test the new scenario. We trace the giant halo of M104 with globular clusters to test this scenario. From the wide images obtained with CFHT/MegaCam, we find a large number of globular clusters in this galaxy. We also confirm their membership by measuring the radial velocities from the spectra obtained with MMT/Hectospec. The color distribution of these globular clusters is bimodal, and blue (metal-poor) globular clusters are more spatially widely spread than red (metal-rich) globular clusters. This indicates that M104 hosts a giant metal-poor halo as well as an inner metal-rich halo. Combining this result with the fact that M104 is unusually massive and brighter than other spiral galaxies, we infer that M104 was indeed a massive elliptical galaxy that had formed a metal-rich halo by gas-rich mergers and a metal-poor halo by gas-poor mergers. In addition, we find young star clusters around the disk of M104, which shows that the disk formed after the spheroidal halos had formed. In conclusion, we suggest that M104 was originally a massive elliptical galaxy and was transformed to a lenticular galaxy by acquiring its disk later.

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