THE TIDAL FILAMENT OF NGC 4660

Abstract

ABSTRACT NGC 4660, in the Virgo cluster, is a well-studied elliptical galaxy which has a strong disk component (D/T approximately 0.2–0.3). The central regions, including the disk component, have stellar populations approximately 12–13 Gyr in age, based on SAURON studies. However, we report the discovery of a long, narrow tidal filament associated with the galaxy, as seen in deep co-added Schmidt plate images and deep CCD frames, implying that the galaxy has undergone a tidal interaction and merger within the last few Gyr. The relative narrowness of the filament implies a wet merger with at least one spiral galaxy involved, but the current state of the system shows little evidence of such. However, a two-component photometric fit using GALFIT shows much bluer colors for the disk component than for the elliptical component, which may represent a residual trace of enhanced star formation in the disk caused by the interaction 1–2 Gyr ago. There are brighter concentrations within the filament that resemble tidal dwarf galaxies, although they are at least 40 times fainter. These concentrations may represent faint, evolved versions of those galaxies. A previously detected stripped satellite galaxy south of the nucleus seen in our residual image may imply that the filament is a tidal stream produced by perigalactic passages of this satellite.