Flattening of Galaxies of Different Morphological Types in Subclusters of Coma

TL;DR

This study investigates how galaxy shapes and hydrogen content vary with local density in the Coma cluster's subclusters, revealing morphological transformations and potential merging activity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the dependence of galaxy flattening and hydrogen deficit on subcluster density and location within the Coma cluster.

Findings

E and S0 galaxies are spheroidals in dense regions

Spiral galaxies show significant hydrogen deficits in subclusters

Spirals near NGC 4874 are moving towards the cluster center

Abstract

The dependence of flattening of galaxies on the density of galaxies in subclusters selected around galaxies NGC4889, NGC4874 and NGC4839 in the Coma cluster has been studied. The mean values of observed ratios of galaxy diameters and histograms of their distributions indicate that in the central, dense regions of subclusters E and S0 type galaxies are close to spheroidals. Spiral galaxies in subcllusters are found with a hydrogen deficit that about 5 times exceeds the hydrogen deficit in spirals within the halo of the Coma cluster. Most of spirals with a hydrogen deficit in the subcluster around NGC 4874 according to their 3-D coordinates are located closer to the south-east edge of this subcluster near an extended gas filament in the x-ray region. This may indicate over the move of this subcluster toward the central condensation of faint galaxies in the Coma cluster for a possible merge with it.