The Distance of the Redshift-Discordant Member in Seyfert's Sextet

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Session 106 -- Galaxies: Photometry and Spectrophotometry
Display presentation, Thursday, 12, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

[106.02] The Distance of the Redshift-Discordant Member in Seyfert's Sextet

Wentao Wu, C.R. Rabaca, J.W. Sulentic (The University of Alabama)

We use $B$-band HST WFC images deconvolved with the $\sigma$-CLEAN algorithm (Keel 1991, PASP, 103, 723) to estimate the relative distance of the discordant redshift member in the compact group of galaxies known as Seyfert's Sextet (SS). We report on a comparison between the luminosity function of the HII regions in the SS group member and in nearby Sc galaxies (Kennicutt, Edgar \& Hodge 1989, ApJ, 337, 761). We further compare the size of the largest star-forming superassociation in this galaxy with the size-distance correlation established in Elmegreen, Elmegreen, Lang \& Stephens 1994, ApJ, 425, 57. The newly determined distance favors the idea that the galaxy lies beyond the group. The HST images also reveal new structural peculiarities in the accordant redshift members of this ``quintet'' and the possibility that quiet merger events occur in compact groups.

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