Bibcode
Prieto, M.; Beckman, J. E.; Cepa, J.; Varela, A. M.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 257, no. 1, p. 85-96.
Advertised on:
4
1992
Citations
30
Refereed citations
27
Description
We analyze the structure of a small sample of galaxies, using a set of
CCD images in standard photometric bands presented in a previous paper
(Prieto et al. 1991). These and their combinations in the form of color
index images, offer high quality information about the structure of the
galaxies, allowing us to pick out the major concentrations of dust and
star formation, notably in the intermediate zone between bulge and disk.
The detection of these structures allows us to interpret the radial
luminosity profiles of the galaxies, in particular where these show
departures from the simple sum of an R exp 1/4 law bulge component and
an exponential disk component. The radial color index profiles are shown
to be especially useful in revealing the presence of a true bulge and
hence in effecting a reliable bulge-disk decomposition. We infer that in
all the galaxies examined here, the causes of observed departures from
simple two-component bulge + disk models for radial profiles are to be
found in the intermediate zones of the galaxies, and are the enhanced
young stellar populations and the associated dust concentrations
encountered in these zones.