[Previous] | [Session 8] | [Next]
P. Guhathakurta (UCSC), A.E. Dolphin (NOAO), D. Geisler (U Concepción), E.K. Grebel (U Wash), P.W. Hodge (U Wash), I.D. Karachentsev (SAO), V.E. Karachentseva (U Kiev), A. Sarajedini (Wesleyan U), P. Seitzer (U Mich)
The nearby early-type galaxy Maffei~I (listed as E or S0-pec) was observed to better constrain the properties of the poorly studied group of galaxies to which it belongs. Maffei~I is located practically in the Galactic plane (b=0). It is substantially reddened by foreground Galactic interstellar dust and the amount of reddening varies from one line of sight to another within the WFPC2 field of view. Assuming Maffei~I is a normal E/SO galaxy, one can take advantage of the fact that such galaxies are typically characterized by smooth centrally concentrated surface brightness profiles obeying the r1/4 law, elliptical symmetry, and a smooth radial gradient in color (if any). We use Maffei~I as a reference screen of background illumination to study the fine-scale structure and extinction law of intervening Galactic dust.
PG is an Alfred P.\ Sloan Research Fellow. Support for this work was provided by NASA through grant GO-08192.97A from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/users/seitzer/snapshot/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser. [Previous] | [Session 8] | [Next]