AAS Meeting #193 - Austin, Texas, January 1999
Session 9. Elliptical Galaxies
Display, Wednesday, January 6, 1999, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall 1

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[9.01] Probing the Formation of Elliptical Galaxies

M. Stiavelli (STScI), T. Treu (STScI and SNS, Pisa)

Studies of the evolution of the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies as a function of redshift indicate that their stellar population formed at high redshift. However, the early formation of stellar populations can still be fitted into a hierarchical clustering model, where galaxies are assembled much later than their stars. Finding (or not finding) ellipticals at high redshift would be a much more direct and conclusive test for formation theories. We present here evidence that some ellipticals were already assembled at high redshift (z ~q 2).


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