Further evidence of continuity between elliptical and disc galaxies

Capaccioli, Massimo; Caon, Nicola; Rampazzo, Roberto
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (ISSN 0035-8711), vol. 242, Jan. 1, 1990, p. 24P-27P.

Advertised on:
1
1990
Number of authors
3
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
38
Refereed citations
32
Description
The behavior of the isophotes of the E galaxies in a new photometric sample of 33 early-type galaxies belonging to the Virgo cluster (Caon) is compared to that of the S0 galaxies. Almost all objects flatter than b/a = 0.2 are found to exhibit 'pointed' (or 'lemon-shaped') isophotes irrespective of their Hubble class, while almost none do if rounder than the same limit. This observation is used to support the incipient scenario in which a large fraction (about 1/2) of E galaxies - the so-called 'disky ellipticals' - populates one end of a disk-to-bulge sequence including S0 and spiral galaxies.