Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Brightest Cluster Galaxies1
Astronomical Journal, accepted for publication HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGING OF BRIGHTEST CLUSTER GALAXIES1 Seppo Laine2, Roeland P. van der Marel Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 Tod R. Lauer National Optical Astronomy Observatories, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726 Marc Postman, Christopher P. O’Dea Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 and Frazer N. Owen National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 ABSTRACT 1Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal #8683. 2Present address: SIRTF Science Center, California Institute of Technology, 220-6, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 –2– We used the HST WFPC2 to obtain I-band images of the centers of 81 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), drawn from a volume-limited sample of nearby BCGs. The images show a rich variety of morphological features, including multiple or double nuclei, dust, stellar disks, point source nuclei, and central surface brightness depressions. High resolution surface brightness profiles could be inferred for 60 galaxies. Of those, 88% have well-resolved cores. The relationship between core size and galaxy luminosity for BCGs is indistinguishable from that of Faber et al. (1997, hereafter F97) for galaxies within the same luminosity range. However, the core sizes of the most luminous BCGs fall below the extrapolation of the F97 relationship r L1.15.
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