Overall Description / Broad Science Goal:
The goal of this project is to learn about the origin of the bright nuclei observed at the centers of dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) in the Virgo Cluster. One theory for the formation of dE nuclei suggests that these nuclei are effectively “super star clusters” formed by the coalescence of several globular clusters (GCs = smaller groups of stars that orbit around a galaxy) that migrated to the center of the dwarf galaxy.
Analysis procedure:
We have obtained spectra of a sample of 300 globular cluster (GC) candidates around 21 different Virgo Cluster dEs using the Keck telescope. The student will analyze the properties of these GC candidates to separate out true GCs from foreground / background sources. She/he will use the technique of spectral co-addition to analyze the spectroscopic properties of the GCs and compare them to the properties of the 21 dE nuclei.
Mentor: Elisa Toloba, Postdoctoral Scholar
Secondary Mentors: Ms. Jingjing Chen (Peking U), Prof. Raja GuhaThakurta