Do galaxies form a spectroscopic sequence?

Abstract

We identify a spectroscopic sequence of galaxies, analogous to the Hubble sequence of morphological types, based on the Automatic Spectroscopic K-means (ASK) classification. Considering galaxy spectra as multidimensional vectors, the majority of the spectral classes are distributed along a well defined curve going from the earliest to the latest types, suggesting that the optical spectra of normal galaxies can be described in terms of a single affine parameter. Optically-bright active galaxies, however, appear as an independent, roughly orthogonal branch that intersects the main sequence exactly at the transition between early and late types.

10 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRAS

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