A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE)

Context. Galaxies fly inside galaxy clusters and ram pressure by the intracluster medium (ICM) can remove a large amount of the interstellar medium (ISM) from the galaxy, and deposit the gas in the ICM. The ISM decoupled from the host galaxy leaves a long trail following the moving galaxy. Such long trails track galaxy motions and they can be detected with sensitive data in H α . Aims. We study the H α tail trailing NGC 4569 in the Virgo cluster. Methods. The initial discovery was made with the deep H α imaging data with CFHT from the VESTIGE project. The follow-up spectroscopic observations were carried out with APO / DIS , MMT / Binospec , and CFHT / SITELLE . Results. Aside from the known 80 kpc H α tail downstream of NGC 4569, the deep H α imaging data allow the H α tail detected to at least 230 kpc from the galaxy. More importantly, we confirmed the H α clumps implied from the imaging data with spectroscopic data. The H α clumps show a smooth radial velocity gradient across ∼1300 km/s, eventually reaching the velocity of the cluster. Conclusions. For the first time, this discovery offers a view of the full deceleration process of the stripped ISM. This discovery also showcases the potential with wide-field H α survey on galaxy clusters to discover intracluster optical emission-line clouds originated from cluster galaxies. These clouds provide kinematic tracers to the infall history of cluster galaxies and the turbulence in the ICM. They also serve as excellent multi-phase objects for studying the classical cloud-crushing problem and other important physical processes.

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Publication Details

Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published
2025-12-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202556225
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.15
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article

A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE)

N. Pichette, Craig L. Sarazin, Hao Chen, G. Hensler et al.
1 citations
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
1.15
article

A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE)

N. Pichette, Craig L. Sarazin, Hao Chen, G. Hensler, J. Braine, Rui Luo, M. Fossati, A. Boselli, S. Martocchia, Ming Sun, B. Vollmer, W. Forman, Jean‐Charles Cuillandre, E Sarpa, B. Épinat, Huijun Le, Stephen Gwyn, P. Amram, K. Hosogi
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Context. Galaxies fly inside galaxy clusters and ram pressure by the intracluster medium (ICM) can remove a large amount of the interstellar medium (ISM) from the galaxy, and deposit the gas in the ICM. The ISM decoupled from the host galaxy leaves a long trail following the moving galaxy. Such long trails track galaxy motions and they can be detected with sensitive data in H α . Aims. We study the H α tail trailing NGC 4569 in the Virgo cluster. Methods. The initial discovery was made with the deep H α imaging data with CFHT from the VESTIGE project. The follow-up spectroscopic observations were carried out with APO / DIS , MMT / Binospec , and CFHT / SITELLE . Results. Aside from the known 80 kpc H α tail downstream of NGC 4569, the deep H α imaging data allow the H α tail detected to at least 230 kpc from the galaxy. More importantly, we confirmed the H α clumps implied from the imaging data with spectroscopic data. The H α clumps show a smooth radial velocity gradient across ∼1300 km/s, eventually reaching the velocity of the cluster. Conclusions. For the first time, this discovery offers a view of the full deceleration process of the stripped ISM. This discovery also showcases the potential with wide-field H α survey on galaxy clusters to discover intracluster optical emission-line clouds originated from cluster galaxies. These clouds provide kinematic tracers to the infall history of cluster galaxies and the turbulence in the ICM. They also serve as excellent multi-phase objects for studying the classical cloud-crushing problem and other important physical processes.

Astronomy and AstrophysicsVol. 705
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Vienna (AT), Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (IT), Université de Bordeaux (FR), Guizhou Normal University (CN), Délégation Paris 7 (FR), Université Paris Cité (FR), Aix-Marseille Université (FR), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg (FR), Brera Astronomical Observatory (IT), Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modélisation (FR), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (FR), Institute of Astronomy (RU), Zhejiang Lab (CN), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (IT), Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (US), University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), University of Alabama in Huntsville (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
1.15
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