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arXiv · 1007.4917

PPAK Wide-field Integral Field Spectroscopy of NGC 628: I. The largest spectroscopic mosaic on a single galaxy

Abstract

We present a wide-field IFS survey on the nearby face-on Sbc galaxy NGC 628, comprising 11094 individual spectra, covering a nearly circular field-of-view of ~6 arcmin in diameter, with a sampling of ~2.7 arcsec per spectrum in the optical wavelength range (3700--7000 AA). This galaxy is part of the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey, (PINGS, Rosales-Ortega et al. 2009). To our knowledge, this is the widest spectroscopic survey ever made in a single nearby galaxy. A detailed flux calibration was applied, granting a spectrophotometric accuracy of $\sim$\,0.2 mag. The age of the stellar populations shows a negative gradient from the inner (older) to the outer (younger) regions. We found an inversion of this gradient in the central ~1 kpc region, where a somewhat younger stellar population is present within a ring at this radius. This structure is associated with a circumnuclear star-forming region at ~ 500 pc, also found in similar spiral galaxies. From the study of the integrated and spatially resolved ionized gas we found a moderate SFR of ~ 2.4 Msun yr$^{-1}$. The oxygen abundance shows a a clear gradient of higher metallicity values from the inner part to the outer part of the galaxy, with a mean value of 12~+~log(O/H) ~ 8.7. At some specific regions of the galaxy, the spatially resolved distribution of the physical properties show some level of structure, suggesting real point-to-point variations within an individual \hh region. Our results are consistent with an inside-out growth scheme, with stronger star formation at the outer regions, and with evolved stellar populations in the inner ones.

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BibTeXRIS

S. F. Sanchez, F. F. Rosales-Ortega, R. C. Kennicutt, B. D. Johnson, A. I. Diaz, A. Pasquali, C. N. Hao. 2010-07-29. PPAK Wide-field Integral Field Spectroscopy of NGC 628: I. The largest spectroscopic mosaic on a single galaxy. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17444.x

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