Euclid: Early Release Observations -- The star-formation history of massive early-type galaxies in the Perseus cluster

TL;DR

This study uses Euclid and other multi-wavelength data to analyze the star-formation history of early-type galaxies in the Perseus cluster, revealing rapid stellar mass growth and UV emission characteristics consistent with high-redshift galaxy observations.

Contribution

First detailed analysis combining Euclid ERO data with UV and optical observations to reconstruct SFH of ETGs in Perseus, including spatially resolved stellar populations.

Findings

Most ETGs require UV upturn to explain FUV emission.

ETGs formed over 30% of their mass by z~5.

Massive ETGs at z~5 comparable to JWST high-z galaxies.

Abstract

The Euclid Early Release Observations (ERO) programme targeted the Perseus galaxy cluster in its central region over 0.7deg$^2$. We combined the exceptional image quality and depth of the ERO-Perseus with FUV and NUV observations from GALEX and AstroSat/UVIT, as well as $ugrizH\alpha$ data from MegaCam at the CFHT, to deliver FUV-to-NIR magnitudes of the 87 brightest galaxies within the Perseus cluster. We reconstructed the star-formation history (SFH) of 59 early-type galaxies (ETGs) within the sample, through the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code CIGALE and state-of-the-art stellar population (SP) models to reproduce the galactic UV emission from hot, old, low-mass stars (i.e. the UV upturn). In addition, for the six most massive ETGs in Perseus [stellar masses $\log_{10}(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot}) \geq 10.3$], we analysed their spatially resolved SP through a radial SED fitting. In agreement with our previous work on Virgo ETGs, we found that (i) the majority of ETGs needs the presence of an UV upturn to explain their FUV emission, with temperatures $\langle T_{\rm UV}\rangle$~33800 K; (ii) ETGs have grown their stellar masses quickly, with SF timescales $\tau\lesssim 1500$ Myr. We found that all ETGs in the sample have formed more than about 30% of their stellar masses at z~5, up to ~100%. At z~5, the stellar masses of the most massive nearby ETGs, which have present-day stellar masses $\log_{10}(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot})\gtrsim 10.8$, are then found to be comparable to those of the red quiescent galaxies observed by JWST at similar redshifts (z>4.6). This study can be extended to ETGs in the 14000 deg$^2$ extragalactic sky that will soon be observed by Euclid, in combination with those from other major upcoming surveys (e.g. Rubin/LSST), and UV observations, to ultimately assess whether the nearby massive ETGs represent the progeny of the massive high-z JWST red quiescent galaxies.