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The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXXVI. Caught in the Act of Transformation: Morphological Decomposition and Classification of Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

  • Authors: Kaixiang Wang, Eric W. Peng, Chengze Liu, Laura Ferrarese, Patrick Côté, J. Christopher Mihos, Matthew A. Taylor, John P. Blakeslee, Jean-Charles Cuillandre, Pierre-Alain Duc, Puragra Guhathakurta, Stephen Gwyn, Youkyung Ko, Ariane Lançon, Sungsoon Lim, Lauren A. MacArthur, Thomas Puzia, Joel Roediger, Laura V. Sales, Rubén Sánchez-Janssen, Chelsea Spengler, Elisa Toloba, Hong-Xin Zhang, Mingcheng Zhu

Kaixiang Wang et al 2026 The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 285 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 13.

Spatial distribution of compact stellar systems in the Virgo Cluster. Filled yellow circles represent UCDs. Filled dark red circles and filled orange circles represent certain/probable eUCDs and possible eUCDs, respectively. Filled pink circles denote eight bright GCs with visible envelopes. For eUCDs and GCs shown here, dashed circles indicate candidates lacking velocity measurement. Filled blue circles and squares show strongly nucleated dEs with and without radial velocity measurements. Filled green triangles show Virgo UDGs compiled by S. Lim et al. (2020). Filled orange squares denote the cEs described in A. Guérou et al. (2015). Filled gray circles represent all UCD candidates without velocity measurements. Disrupting dEs and UDGs (J. C. Mihos et al. 2015, 2017; S. Lim et al. 2020), and eUCDs that show tidal features are labeled with filled green stars. The Gaussian-smoothed distribution of Virgo nucleated dEs identified in the NGVS is shown as the background. While the density peak of all nucleated dEs is located around M84 and M86 (northwest of M87), most of the eUCDs and strongly nucleated dEs are concentrated around M87. Massive Virgo galaxies (﹩{M}_{g}^{{\prime} }\lt -20﹩) that could be primary contributors of tidal disruption are shown in white-dashed circles, with circle sizes corresponding to their total luminosity. Two white crosses mark the positions of M87 and M49, the centers of the Virgo A and B subclusters, respectively. Most strongly nucleated dEs and eUCDs have clear associations with larger galaxies or form coherent substructures. Two “isolated” eUCDs discussed in Section 5.3.1 are labeled.

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