Abstract
We have identified a population of passive spiral galaxies from photometry and integral field spectroscopy. We selected z<0.035 spiral galaxies that have WISE colours consistent with little mid-infrared emission from warm dust. Matched aperture photometry of 51 spiral galaxies in ultraviolet, optical and mid-infrared show these galaxies have colours consistent with passive galaxies. Six galaxies form a spectroscopic pilot study and were observed using the Wide-Field Spectrograph to check for signs of nebular emission from star formation.We see no evidence of substantial nebular emission found in previous red spiral samples. These six galaxies possess absorption-line spectra with 4000Å breaks consistent with an average luminosity-weighted age of 2.3 Gyr. Our photometric and integral field spectroscopic observations confirm the existence of a population of local passive spiral galaxies, implying that transformation into early-type morphologies is not required for the quenching of star formation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | L11-L15 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters |
| Volume | 462 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 11 Oct 2016 |
Keywords
- Evolution - galaxies
- Galaxies
- General - galaxies
- Spiral - galaxies
- Stellar content
Press/Media
-
Why do some galaxies stop making new stars?
Michael Brown, Amelia Kate Fraser McKelvie & Kevin Alan Pimbblet
12/07/16
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment