Infall of nearby galaxies into the virgo cluster as traced with hubble space telescope

Abstract

We measured the tip of the red giant branch distances to nine galaxies in the direction to the Virgo cluster using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. These distances put seven galaxies (GR 34, UGC 7512, NGC 4517, IC 3583, NGC 4600, VCC 2037, and KDG 215) in front of Virgo and two galaxies (IC 3023 and KDG 177) likely inside the cluster. Distances and radial velocities of the galaxies situated between us and the Virgo core clearly exhibit the infall phenomenon toward the cluster. In the case of spherically symmetric radial infall, we estimate the radius of the "zero-velocity surface" to be (7.2 ± 0.7) Mpc, which yields a total mass of the Virgo cluster of (8.0 ± 2.3) × 1014 M, in good agreement with its virial mass estimates. We conclude that the Virgo outskirts do not contain significant amounts of dark matter beyond their virial radius. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..