Seminar: The Atlas3D Project

Paulo Serra 

Astron

I’ll discuss results from the Altas3D project. This is a multi-wavelength survey of a volume-limited sample of 260 early-type galaxies within 40 Mpc from us, supported by simulations and semi-analytic modelling.

The aim of this project is to provide the most complete atlas of nearby early-type galaxies to date. We analyse the stellar content, morphology and kinematics of all galaxies in the sample using optical imaging and integral-field spectroscopy, and study their cold inter-stellar medium by observing molecular gas (both single-dish and interferometry) and atomic neutral hydrogen (with the Westerbork telescope).

I will show how early-type galaxies can be classified based on their stellar kinematics in two families, slow- and fast rotators, which do more justice to their structure than the classic E vs. S0 classification.

I will show how this classification depends on galaxy mass and environment, and revisit the classic morphology-density relation. I will link these results to our study of the cold gas properties of early-type galaxies as a function of their mass and environment density.