[65.06] The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The Space Density and Surface Brightness Distribution of Galaxies by Type and Component

AAS 204th Meeting, June 2004
Session 65 Galaxy Structure and its Evolution
Topical Session, Wednesday, June 2, 2004, 2:30-4:00pm, 4:15-6:00pm, 603/605/607

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[65.06] The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The Space Density and Surface Brightness Distribution of Galaxies by Type and Component

S. P. Driver (Mount Stromlo Observatory)

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) is a wide area ground-based imaging survey (37.5 sq degrees) to a limiting isophote of \mu_lim = 26.0 B mags/sq arcsec. The main aim of the MGC is to provide a high quality zero redshift benchmark for the deep near-IR surveys planned with the James Webb Space Telescope. Redshifts have now been obtained for the brightest 10,000 galaxies to a fixed magnitude limit of B=20 mags. The sample is sufficiently well resolved to have been morphologically classified by eye and also analysed with the 2D bulge-disk decomposition code GIM2D. Particular attention has been given to understanding --- and compensating for --- the size, luminosity and surface brightness selection effects.

We will present the joint luminosity-surface brightness distribution for the entire glaxay population, and subdivided according to morphological type (Ellipticals E/S0, Early-type Spirals Sabcs and Late-type Spirals Sd/Irrs), and by component (Bulge, Disk, Embedded Bulge and Surrounding Disk).

We will also discuss and compare the potential of various galaxy classification schemes using the MGC as the common data set, these schemes include: the luminosity-surface brightness plane, morphological classification, bulge-disk decomposition, spectral classification, and concentration, asymmetry & smoothness indices.

Finally we discuss plans for an extended MGC capable of quantifying the nearby galaxy population to the Jean's mass limit, and the extension to longer wavelengths (near-IR, far-IR, mm, and 21cm) to provide a complete picture of the young & old star, dust, and gas (CO, HI) content of galaxies in the nearby universe.

[The MGC is a public survey and DVDs of the optical catalogue are available on request (spd@mso.anu.edu.au)].

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.eso.org/~jliske/mgc/. 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.

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