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D.M. Elmegreen (Vassar), B.G. Elmegreen (IBM), F.R. Chromey (Vassar), M.S. Fine (Colgate)
The giant elliptical galaxy M86 in Virgo has a 28 kpc long dust trail inside its optical halo that points toward the nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxy, VCC 882. The trail seems to be stripped material from the dwarf. Extinction measurements suggest that the ratio of the total gas mass in the trail to the blue luminosity of the dwarf is about unity, which is comparable to such ratios in dwarf irregular galaxies. The ram pressure experienced by the dwarf galaxy in the hot gaseous halo of M86 was comparable to the internal gravitational binding energy density of the presumed former gas disk in VCC 882. Published numerical models of this case are consistent with the overall trail-like morphology observed here. Three concentrations in the trail may be evidence for the predicted periodicity of the mass loss. The evaporation time of the trail is comparable to the trail age obtained from the relative speed of the galaxies and the trail length. Thus the trail could be continuously formed from stripped replenished gas if the VCC orbit is bound. However, the high gas mass and the low expected replenishment rate suggest that this is only the first stripping event. Implications for the origin of nucleated dwarf ellipticals are briefly discussed.