Bibcode
Beccari, G.; Bellazzini, M.; Magrini, L.; Coccato, L.; Cresci, G.; Fraternali, F.; de Zeeuw, P. T.; Husemann, B.; Ibata, R.; Battaglia, G.; Martin, N.; Testa, V.; Perina, S.; Correnti, M.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 465, Issue 2, p.2189-2197
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2
2017
Citations
16
Refereed citations
15
Description
We present the results of VLT-MUSE (Very Large Telescope-Multi Unit
Spectroscopic Explorer) integral field spectroscopy of SECCO 1, a faint,
star-forming stellar system recently discovered as the stellar
counterpart of an ultracompact high-velocity cloud (HVC 274.68+74.0),
very likely residing within a substructure of the Virgo cluster of
galaxies. We have obtained the radial velocity of a total of 38
individual compact sources identified as H II regions in the main and
secondary bodies of the system, and derived the metallicity for 18 of
them. We provide the first direct demonstration that the two stellar
bodies of SECCO 1 are physically associated and that their velocities
match the H I velocities. The metallicity is quite uniform over the
whole system, with a dispersion lower than the uncertainty on individual
metallicity estimates. The mean abundance, <12 + log(O/H)> = 8.44,
is much higher than the typical values for local dwarf galaxies of
similar stellar mass. This strongly suggests that the SECCO 1 stars were
born from a pre-enriched gas cloud, possibly stripped from a larger
galaxy. Using archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images, we derive a
total stellar mass of ≃1.6 × 105 M⊙
for SECCO 1, confirming that it has a very high H I-to-stellar mass
ratio for a dwarf galaxy, M_{H I}/M* ˜ 100. The star
formation rate, derived from the Hα flux, is a factor of more than
10 higher than in typical dwarf galaxies of similar luminosity.
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Matteo
Monelli