Abstract
We examine the dark matter properties of nearby early-type galaxies using planetary nebulae (PNe) as mass probes. We have designed a specialised instrument, the Planetary Nebula Spectrograph (PN.S) operating at the William Herschel telescope, with the purpose of measuring PN velocities with best efficiency. The primary scientific objective of this custom-built instrument is the study of the PN kinematics in 12 ordinary round galaxies. Preliminary results showing a dearth of dark matter in ordinary galaxies (Romanowsky et al. 2003) are now confirmed by the first complete PN.S datasets. On the other hand early-type galaxies with a regular dark matter content are starting to be observed among the brighter PN.S target sample, thus confirming a correlation between the global dark-to-luminous mass virial ratio (fDM = MDM M *) and the galaxy luminosity and mass.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages (from-to) | 289-294 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | S244 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2007 |