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S. E. Schneider, M. F. Skrutskie, J. L. Rosenberg (UMass), J. P. Huchra (CfA), T.-H. Jarrett, T. Chester (IPAC), J. A. Eder (NAIC)
The region of the galaxy cluster Abell 262, which is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster, was selected to examine the effective depth of 2MASS because it offered a high density of galaxies with a range of morphologies. Redshifts were obtained for the 2MASS galaxies, nearly complete to Ks<13.5. This corresponds to an absolute magnitude of Ks=-20.3 in Abell 262, more than 4 mag fainter than the Schechter turnover luminosity L*. We determined the K-band luminosity function in Abell 262 and obtained new more-complete 21 cm HI observations of the K-selected galaxies in the cluster, which we describe in this presentation.
Cataloged 2MASS galaxies in this region had redshifts as large as z=0.26, and we were able to examine the spatial distribution of galaxies in fair detail out to z=0.13. The galaxies are highly clustered into a few narrow redshift intervals. Surprisingly, most of the galaxies in this region turned out not to be in Abell 262 or the Pisces-Perseus supercluster (z~0.015) but in a more distant supercluster at z~0.07-0.09. We discuss the kinematic distribution of galaxies across the clusters and the distribution of galaxy luminosities within the clusters.