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arXiv · 1704.05086

GASP I: Gas stripping phenomena in galaxies with MUSE

Abstract

GASP (GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE) is a new integral-field spectroscopic survey with MUSE at the VLT aiming at studying gas removal processes in galaxies. We present an overview of the survey and show a first example of a galaxy undergoing strong gas stripping. GASP is obtaining deep MUSE data for 114 galaxies at z=0.04-0.07 with stellar masses in the range 10^9.2-10^11.5 M_sun in different environments (galaxy clusters and groups, over more than four orders of magnitude in halo mass). GASP targets galaxies with optical signatures of unilateral debris or tails reminiscent of gas stripping processes ("jellyfish galaxies"), as well as a control sample of disk galaxies with no morphological anomalies. GASP is the only existing Integral Field Unit (IFU) survey covering both the main galaxy body and the outskirts and surroundings, where the IFU data can reveal the presence and the origin of the outer gas. To demonstrate GASP's ability to probe the physics of gas and stars, we show the complete analysis of a textbook case of a "jellyfish" galaxy, JO206. This is a massive galaxy (9 x 10^10 M_sun in a low-mass cluster (sigma ~500 km/s), at a small projected clustercentric radius and a high relative velocity, with >=90kpc-long tentacles of ionized gas stripped away by ram pressure. We present the spatially resolved kinematics and physical properties of gas and stars, and depict the evolutionary history of this galaxy.

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BibTeXRIS

Bianca M. Poggianti, Alessia Moretti, Marco Gullieuszik, Jacopo Fritz, Yara Jaffe, Daniela Bettoni, Giovanni Fasano, Callum Bellhouse, George Hau, Benedetta Vulcani, Andrea Biviano, Alessandro Omizzolo, Angela Paccagnella, Mauro D'Onofrio, Antonio Cava, Y. -K. Sheen, Warrick Couch, Matt Owers. 2017-04-26. GASP I: Gas stripping phenomena in galaxies with MUSE. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Faa78ed

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