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A. Gil de Paz (Carnegie Observatories), B. F. Madore (Carnegie Observatories & NED/Caltech), M. Rich (UCLA), M. Seibert (CalTech), GALEX Science Team
M32, the high-surface-brightness, compact elliptical-galaxy companion to the Andromeda spiral galaxy has been imaged by GALEX in two ultraviolet bands. Earlier far-ultraviolet data from the Shuttle-borne Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope compared to ground-based data suggested that M32 not only had an extremely large color gradient (amounting to a change in color of (FUV-B)>2mag inside a radius of approximately 40 arcsec) but that its color gradient was inverted with respect to the majority of other color gradients measured for giant elliptical galaxies: M32 being systematically and significantly bluer in its outer reaches as compared to its nucleus. The GALEX satellite has now independently imaged M32 in two ultraviolet bands, centered at 1500 (FUV) and 2300A (NUV). From these data luminosity and color profiles for M32 have been derived and we find no significant color gradient between 7 and 40 arcsec (both in FUV-B and FUV-NUV colors). Beyond 40 arcsec the corrections for a background gradient of light from the disk of M31 become increasingly important. The imaging data are being carefully decomposed so as to properly account for this complicated background contamination, and the results of that on-going analysis will be presented in the oral session.
GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) is a NASA Small Explorer, launched in April 2003. We gratefully acknowledge NASA's support for construction, operation, and science analysis for the GALEX mission.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: agpaz@ociw.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.