Revisiting Stephan's Quintet with deep optical images

Abstract

Stephan's Quintet, a compact group of galaxies, is often used as a laboratory to study a number of phenomena, including physical processes in the interstellar medium, star formation, galaxy evolution, and the formation of fossil groups. As such, it has been subject to intensive multi-wavelength observation campaigns. Yet, models lack constrains to pin down the role of each galaxy in the assembly of the group. We revisit here this system with multi-band deep optical images obtained with MegaCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), focusing on the detection of low surface brightness (LSB) structures. They reveal a number of extended LSB features, some new, and some already visible in published images but not discussed before. An extended diffuse, reddish, lopsided, halo is detected towards the early-type galaxy NGC 7317, the role of which had so far been ignored in models. The presence of this halo made of old stars may indicate that the group formed earlier than previously thought. Finally, a number of additional diffuse filaments are visible, some close to the foreground galaxy NGC 7331 located in the same field. Their structure and association with mid--IR emission suggest contamination by emission from Galactic cirrus.

5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS letters

References in corpus (3)

• The Atlas3D project -- XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images
• Probing interstellar turbulence in cirrus with deep optical imaging: no sign of energy dissipation at 0.01 pc scale
• Powerful H2 Line Cooling in Stephan's Quintet II. Group-wide Gas and Shock Modeling of the Warm H2 and a Comparison with [CII]157.7um Emission and Kinematics

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• A large-scale, regular intergalactic magnetic field associated with Stephan's Quintet?
• Searching for intergalactic star forming regions in Stephan's Quintet with SITELLE: II. Physical properties and metallicity