Morphological transformation of NGC 205?

TL;DR

This study investigates the morphological features of NGC 205, revealing tidal tails, possible dust structures, and a spiral pattern, suggesting ongoing transformation and interaction with M31.

Contribution

The paper provides deep imaging evidence of subtle structures in NGC 205, including tidal tails and dust features, indicating complex morphological transformation.

Findings

Southern tidal tail mapped to large distances

Northern tail possibly obscured by dust lane

Spiral pattern may be due to dust filament

Abstract

NGC 205 is a dwarf elliptical galaxy which shows many features that are more typical of disk galaxies, and our recent study of the central stellar population has added another peculiarity. In the central regions, star formation has been on-going continuously for a few hundred Myr, until ca. 20 Myr ago, perhaps fed by gas funneled to the center in the course of morphological transformation. In this contribution we use a deep, wide-field image obtained at a scale of 2"/px to show that subtle structures can be detected in and near the body of the dwarf galaxy. The southern tidal tail can be mapped out to unprecedented distances from the center, and we suggest that the northern tail is partially hidden behind a very extended dust lane, or ring, belonging to M31. A spiral pattern emerges across the body of the galaxy, but it might be explained by another M31 dust filament.