Program: GS-2019A-Q-214

Title:Spectroscopic mapping of jellyfish galaxies in massive galaxy clusters (South)
PI:Jeong Hwan Lee
Co-I(s): Myung Gyoon Lee, Brian Cho, Jisu Kang

Abstract

Jellyfish galaxies, suffering from ram-pressure stripping, show the intermediate phases from gas-rich galaxies to gas-deficient galaxies in galaxy clusters. Clumpy star-forming knots around jellyfish galaxies are interesting because ram-pressure stripping is a main mechanism of gas removal and quenching star formation. Thus, jellyfish galaxies are ideal samples to figure out how galaxies evolve with gas stripping and what happens in this ‘snapshot’ phase. Previous studies of jellyfish galaxies are limited to relatively low-mass clusters. We propose to obtain GMOS IFU spectroscopic maps of three jellyfish galaxies in MACS clusters, which are more massive and X-ray luminous clusters than nearby ones. We aim to investigate gas and stellar kinematics, gas ionization mechanisms, and other physical properties such as age, mass, abundance, or star formation history of the substructures of jellyfish galaxies. From the proposed observations for jellyfish galaxies in a far harsher environment, we can enhance our understanding of how star formation is triggered in the stripped gas under the effect of strong ram-pressure.

Publications using this program's data