Extensive Globular Cluster Systems Associated with Ultra Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

Pieter Van Dokkum, Roberto Abraham, Aaron J. Romanowsky, Jean Brodie, Charlie Conroy, Shany Danieli, Deborah Lokhorst, Allison Merritt, Lamiya Mowla, Jielai Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of two ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) with measured stellar velocity dispersions in the Coma cluster. The galaxies, Dragonfly 44 and DFX1, have effective radii of 4.7 kpc and 3.5 kpc and velocity dispersions of 47-6+8 km s-1 and 30+7-7 km s-1, respectively. Both galaxies are associated with a striking number of compact objects, tentatively identified as globular clusters: Ngc = 74 ± 18 for Dragonfly 44 and Ngc = 62 ± 17 for DFX1. The number of globular clusters is much higher than expected from the luminosities of the galaxies but is consistent with expectations from the empirical relation between dynamical mass and globular cluster count defined by other galaxies. Combining our data with previous HST observations of Coma UDGs we find that UDGs have a factor of 6.9-2.4+1.0 more globular clusters than other galaxies of the same luminosity, in contrast to a recent study of a similar sample by Amorisco et al., but consistent with earlier results for individual galaxies. The Harris et al. relation between globular cluster count and dark matter halo mass implies a median halo mass of Mhalo ∼1.5 ×1011M⊙ for the sixteen Coma UDGs that have been observed with HST so far, with the largest and brightest having Mhalo ∼5 ×1011M⊙.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberL11
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume844
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Jul 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • galaxies: clusters: individual (Coma)
  • galaxies: evolution
  • galaxies: structure

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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