# Spectroscopy of Ultra-diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

**Authors:** Jennifer Kadowaki, Dennis Zaritsky, and R. L. Donnerstein

arXiv: 1703.02042 · 2017-04-05

## TL;DR

This study spectroscopically confirms a population of large ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Coma Cluster, revealing their stellar populations are metal-poor and some contain gas, challenging previous assumptions about UDGs.

## Contribution

First spectroscopic confirmation of large UDGs in the Coma Cluster, including the discovery of a gas-rich UDG with emission lines.

## Key findings

- Confirmed 4 new cluster UDGs, increasing known population
- UDGs are metal-poor with [Fe/H] $
ot	o -1.5$
- Discovered the first gas-rich UDG with emission lines in a cluster

## Abstract

We present spectra of 5 ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the vicinity of the Coma Cluster obtained with the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph on the Large Binocular Telescope. We confirm 4 of these as members of the cluster, quintupling the number of spectroscopically confirmed systems. Like the previously confirmed large (projected half light radius $>$ 4.6 kpc) UDG, DF44, the systems we targeted all have projected half light radii $> 2.9$ kpc. As such, we spectroscopically confirm a population of physically large UDGs in the Coma cluster. The remaining UDG is located in the field, about $45$ Mpc behind the cluster. We observe Balmer and Ca II H \& K absorption lines in all of our UDG spectra. By comparing the stacked UDG spectrum against stellar population synthesis models, we conclude that, on average, these UDGs are composed of metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] $\lesssim -1.5$). We also discover the first UDG with [OII] and [OIII] emission lines within a clustered environment, demonstrating that not all cluster UDGs are devoid of gas and sources of ionizing radiation.

## Full text

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## Figures

8 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1703.02042/full.md

## References

17 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1703.02042/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1703.02042