How did the merger remnant galaxy M85 form?: A follow-up spectroscopy for M85 globular clusters

  • Ko, Youkyung (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University) ;
  • Lee, Myung Gyoon (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University) ;
  • Sohn, Jubee (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) ;
  • Lim, Sungsoon (Department of Astronomy, Peking University) ;
  • Park, Hong Soo (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Hwang, Narae (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)
  • Published : 2015.10.15

Abstract

M85 is a nearby merger remnant galaxy located at the northern part of the Virgo Cluster. Because of its remarkable merging features, it is an interesting object to investigate its formation history. Globular clusters are a great tracer of the formation history of early-type galaxies, so that we study the globular cluster system of M85. It has been already found that there are "intermediate-color" globular clusters as well as blue and red ones based on the photometric survey using CFHT/Megacam. For follow-up research, we obtain the spectra of 21 globular clusters in the central region of M85 using Gemini-N/GMOS. We estimate their ages and metallicities based on the strength of Lick indices. We detect the intermediate-age population (~ 2 Gyr) with solar metallicities, comprising about 50% of the observed globular clusters, as well as old and metal-poor population. It suggests that M85 experienced a major merging event around 2 Gyr ago. We discuss these results regarding to the formation history of M85.

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