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Galaxy disruption as the origin of intracluster light in the Coma cluster of galaxies

Nature volume 396, pages 549–552 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Although the existence of a faint background of starlight in the core of the Coma cluster has been well established1,2, its origin is uncertain. This vast sea of stars could have formed outside the galaxies, using gas left over from the time of the cluster's birth. Alternatively, it might be the accumulated debris generated by interactions between the galaxies over the lifetime of the cluster3. Here we report the discovery of three large, low-surface-brightness features in the Coma cluster, the most spectacular of which is a plume-like structure, 130 kpc long, in the cluster's heart. These structures will disperse over the next one to two billion years, thereby enhancing the general background light. If this epoch is typical, we argue that a significant fraction — perhaps even most — of the intracluster light results from a steady accumulation of tidal debris generated during galaxy–galaxy and galaxy–cluster interactions.

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Figure 1: R-band image of the Coma cluster core showing the locations and approximate sizes of the low-surface-brightness features (heavy solid lines labelled 1–4) discussed here.
Figure 2: The plume feature before (top) and after (bottom) removing foreground objects.
Figure 3: LSB objects no.2 (left) and no. 3 (right) after removing foreground stars and galaxies.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this work was done at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, under the auspices of the US DOE by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We acknowledge use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, under contract with the NASA. Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under cooperative agreement with the NSF. Observations were made with the Burrell Schmidt telescope of the Warner and Swasey Observatory, Case Western Reserve University. M.J.W. was supported by the NSERC of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, University of California, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Michael D. Gregg

  2. Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-413, Livermore, 94550, California, USA

    Michael D. Gregg

  3. Department of Astronomy and Physics, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, B3H 3C3, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Michael J. West

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Correspondence to Michael D. Gregg.

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Gregg, M., West, M. Galaxy disruption as the origin of intracluster light in the Coma cluster of galaxies. Nature 396, 549–552 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/25078

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