Publication: The properties of the Malin 1 galaxy giant disk A panchromatic view from the NGVS and GUViCS surveys
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2016-09
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Abstract
Context. Low surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs) represent a significant percentage of local galaxies but their formation and evolution remain elusive. They may hold crucial information for our understanding of many key issues (i.e., census of baryonic and dark matter, star formation in the low density regime, mass function). The most massive examples – the so called giant LSBGs – can be as massive as the Milky Way, but with this mass being distributed in a much larger disk.
Aims. Malin 1 is an iconic giant LSBG – perhaps the largest disk galaxy known. We attempt to bring new insights on its structure and evolution on the basis of new images covering a wide range in wavelength. Methods. We have computed surface brightness profiles (and average surface brightnesses in 16 regions of interest), in six photometric bands (FUV, NUV, u, g, i, z). We compared these data to various models, testing a variety of assumptions concerning the formation and evolution of Malin 1.
Results. We find that the surface brightness and color profiles can be reproduced by a long and quiet star-formation history due to the low surface density; no significant event, such as a collision, is necessary. Such quiet star formation across the giant disk is obtained in a disk model calibrated for the Milky Way, but with an angular momentum approximately 20 times larger. Signs of small variations of the star-formation history are indicated by the diversity of ages found when different regions within the galaxy are intercompared.
Conclusions. For the first time, panchromatic images of Malin 1 are used to constrain the stellar populations and the history of this iconic example among giant LSBGs. Based on our model, the extreme disk of Malin 1 is found to have a long history of relatively low star formation (about 2 Mꙩyr^(−1)). Our model allows us to make predictions on its stellar mass and metallicity.
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© ESO, 2016. We thank the referee for pointing to very pertinent elements, allowing us to improve our analysis and discussion. This work is supported in part by the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research (CANFAR) which has been made possible by funding from CANARIE under the Network-Enabled Platforms program. This research used the facilities of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre operated by the National Research Council of Canada with the support of the Canadian Space Agency. J.K. acknowledges the support from NASA through grant NNX14AF74G. This work is based in part on data products produced by GAZPAR located at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille. We especially thank Denis Burgarella and Olivier Ilbert for their feedback and help in this process. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research made use of Montage. It is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number ACI-1440620, and was previously funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth Science Technology Office, Computation Technologies Project, under Cooperative Agreement Number NCC5-626 between NASA and the California Institute of Technology.