Palomar/Las Campanas Imaging Atlas of blue compact dwarf galaxies. I. Images and integrated photometry
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2003
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University Chicago Press
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Abstract
We present B, R, and Hα images for a total of 114 nearby galaxies (v_helio < 4000 km s^-1) that, with exception of nine objects, are classified as blue compact dwarfs (BCDs). BR integrated magnitudes, Hα fluxes and Hα equivalent widths for all the objects in the sample are presented. A new set of quantitative, observational criteria for a galaxy to be classified as a BCD is proposed. These criteria include a limit on the K-band luminosity (i.e., stellar mass; M_K > -21 mag), peak surface brightness (μ_B,peak < 22 mag arcsec-2), and color at the peak surface brightness (μ^_B,peak - μ_R,peak ≤1). Hα emission is detected in all but three sample galaxies. Typical color, absolute magnitude, and Hα luminosity are (B-R) = 0.7 ± 0.3 mag, M_B = -16.1 ± 1.4 mag, and log (L_Hα) = 40.0 ± 0.6 (ergs s^-1). Galaxies morphologically classified as nE and iE BCDs within our sample show lower Hα equivalent widths and redder colors, on average, than the iI- and i0-type BCDs. For most of the galaxies the presence of an evolved stellar population is required to explain their observed properties; only the most metal-poor BCDs (e.g., I Zw 18, Tol 65) are still compatible with a pure, young burst. The flux-calibrated and WCS-compliant images in this Atlas are individually available through the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) image server and collectively through a dedicated Web page.
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© 2003. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We are grateful to the Palomar and Las Campanas observatories staff for their support and hospitality, and to the Caltech/Palomar and OCIW/Las Campanas Time Allocation Committees for the generous allocation of time to this project. A. G. d. P. acknowledges financial support from NASA through a Long Term Space Astrophysics grant to BFM. A. G. d. P. is also partially supported by the CONACYT (Mexico) grant 36132-E and the Spanish Programa Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica under grant AYA2000-1790. This research has made use of the NASA/ IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We would like also to thank K. G. Noeske, P. G. Pérez González, and C. Sánchez Contreras for valuable discussions and the NED/LEVEL5 staff for helping us making this Atlas publicly available. For technical support on using the images from this atlas, please write to ned@ipac.caltech.edu or to one of the authors. We are grateful to the anonymous referee for her/his helpful comments and suggestions.