Dual Stellar Halos in Early-type Galaxies and Formation of Massive Galaxies

摘要

M105 in the Leo I Group is a textbook example of a standard elliptical galaxy. It is only one of the few elliptical galaxies for which we can study their stellar halos using the resolved stars. It is an ideal target to study the structure and composition of stellar halos in elliptical galaxies. We present photometry and metallicity of the resolved stars in the inner and outer regions of M105. These provide strong evidence that there are two distinct stellar halos in this galaxy, a metal-poor (blue) halo and a metal-rich (red) halo. Then we compare them with those in other early-type galaxies and use the dual halo mode formation scenario to describe how massive galaxies formed.