The haloes and environments of nearby galaxies (HERON) -- III. A 45 kpc spiral structure in the GLSB galaxy UGC 4599

TL;DR

This study reveals a 45 kpc spiral structure in the GLSB galaxy UGC 4599, highlighting its faint extended disk and spiral arms through deep multi-wavelength observations, suggesting a unique galaxy formation scenario.

Contribution

First detailed detection of a 45 kpc spiral structure in UGC 4599 using deep imaging, expanding understanding of GLSB galaxy features and their formation.

Findings

Detection of an extremely faint outer disk down to 31 mag arcsec$^{-2}$

Identification of two spiral arms with ~6° pitch angle

Evidence of filamentary gas accretion in galaxy outskirts

Abstract

We use a 0.7-m telescope in the framework of the Halos and Environments of Nearby Galaxies (HERON) survey to probe low surface brightness structures in nearby galaxies. One of our targets, UGC 4599, is usually classified as an early-type galaxy surrounded by a blue ring making it a potential Hoag's Object analog. Prior photometric studies of UGC 4599 were focused on its bright core and the blue ring. However, the HERON survey allows us to study its faint extended regions. With an eight hour integration, we detect an extremely faint outer disk with an extrapolated central surface brightness of $\mu_\mathrm{0,d}(r)=25.5$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$ down to 31 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ and a scale length of 15 kpc. We identify two distinct spiral arms of pitch angle ~6{\deg} surrounding the ring. The spiral arms are detected out to ~45 kpc in radius and the faint disk continues to ~70 kpc. These features are also seen in the GALEX FUV and NUV bands, in a deep u-band image from the 4.3m Lowell Discovery Telescope (which reveals inner spiral structure emerging from the core), and in HI. We compare this galaxy to ordinary spiral and elliptical galaxies, giant low surface brightness (GLSB) galaxies, and Hoag's Object itself using several standard galaxy scaling relations. We conclude that the pseudobulge and disk properties of UGC 4599 significantly differ from those of Hoag's Object and of normal galaxies, pointing toward a GLSB galaxy nature and filamentary accretion of gas to generate its outer disk.