Browsing by Author "Tozzi, P"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The nature of blue cores in spheroids
    (2005) Menanteau, F; Martel, AR; Tozzi, P; Frye, B; Ford, HC; Infante, L; Benítez, N; Galaz, G; Coe, D; Illingworth, GD; Hartig, GF; Clampin, M
    We investigate the physical nature of blue cores in early-type galaxies through the first multiwavelength analysis of a serendipitously discovered field blue-nucleated spheroid in the background of the deep Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC griz multicolor observations of the cluster A1689. The resolved g - r, r - i, and i - z color maps reveal a prominent blue core identifying this galaxy as a "typical'' case study, exhibiting variations of 0.5 - 1.0 mag in color between the center and the outer regions, opposite to the expectations of reddened metallicity- induced gradients in passively evolved elliptical galaxies. From a Magellan-Clay telescope spectrum we secure the galaxy redshift at z = 0.624. We find a strong X-ray source coincident with the spheroid galaxy. Spectral features and a high X-ray luminosity indicate the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the galaxy. However, a comparison of the X-ray luminosity to a sample derived from the Chandra Deep Field - South displays L-X to be comparable to type 1/QSO galaxies while the optical flux is consistent with a normal star-forming galaxy. We conclude that the galaxy's nonthermal component dominates at high-energy wavelengths, while we associate the spheroid blue light with the stellar spectrum of normal star-forming galaxies. We argue for a probable association between the presence of blue cores in spheroids and AGN activity.