TY - JOUR
T1 - Alone on a wide wide sea. The origin of SECCO 1, an isolated star-forming gas cloud in the Virgo cluster
AU - Bellazzini, M.
AU - Armillotta, L.
AU - Perina, S.
AU - Magrini, L.
AU - Cresci, G.
AU - Beccari, G.
AU - Battaglia, G.
AU - Fraternali, F.
AU - de Zeeuw, P. T.
AU - Martin, N. F.
AU - Calura, F.
AU - Ibata, R.
AU - Coccato, L.
AU - Testa, V.
AU - Correnti, M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - SECCO 1 is an extremely dark, low-mass (M* ≃ 105 M⊙), star-forming stellar system lying in the low-velocity cloud (LVC) substructure of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and hosting several HII regions. Here, we review our knowledge of this remarkable system, and present the results of (a) additional analysis of our panoramic spectroscopic observations with MUSE, (b) the combined analysis of Hubble Space Telescope and MUSE data, and (c) new narrowband observations obtained with OSIRIS@GTC to search for additional HII regions in the surroundings of the system. We provide new evidence supporting an age as young as ≲4Myr for the stars that are currently ionizing the gas in SECCO 1. We identify only one new promising candidate HII region possibly associated with SECCO 1, thus confirming the extreme isolation of the system.We also identify three additional candidate pressure-supported dark clouds in Virgo among the targets of the SECCO survey. Various possible hypotheses for the nature and origin of SECCO 1 are considered and discussed, also with the help of dedicated hydrodynamical simulations showing that a hydrogen cloud with the characteristics of SECCO 1 can likely survive for ≳1 Gyr while travelling within the LVC Intra Cluster Medium.
AB - SECCO 1 is an extremely dark, low-mass (M* ≃ 105 M⊙), star-forming stellar system lying in the low-velocity cloud (LVC) substructure of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and hosting several HII regions. Here, we review our knowledge of this remarkable system, and present the results of (a) additional analysis of our panoramic spectroscopic observations with MUSE, (b) the combined analysis of Hubble Space Telescope and MUSE data, and (c) new narrowband observations obtained with OSIRIS@GTC to search for additional HII regions in the surroundings of the system. We provide new evidence supporting an age as young as ≲4Myr for the stars that are currently ionizing the gas in SECCO 1. We identify only one new promising candidate HII region possibly associated with SECCO 1, thus confirming the extreme isolation of the system.We also identify three additional candidate pressure-supported dark clouds in Virgo among the targets of the SECCO survey. Various possible hypotheses for the nature and origin of SECCO 1 are considered and discussed, also with the help of dedicated hydrodynamical simulations showing that a hydrogen cloud with the characteristics of SECCO 1 can likely survive for ≳1 Gyr while travelling within the LVC Intra Cluster Medium.
KW - Galaxies: clusters: individual: Virgo cluster
KW - Galaxies: dwarf
KW - Galaxies: interactions
KW - Galaxies: star formation
KW - HII regions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045472010&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/sty467
DO - 10.1093/mnras/sty467
M3 - Article
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 476
SP - 4565
EP - 4583
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 4
ER -