Fornax3D project: Overall goals, galaxy sample, MUSE data analysis, and initial results

Abstract

The Fornax cluster provides a uniquely compact laboratory to study the detailed history of early-type galaxies and the role played by environment in driving their evolution and their transformation from late-type galaxies. Using the superb capabilities of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer on the Very Large Telescope, high-quality integral-field spectroscopic data were obtained for the inner regions of all the bright (m B ≤ 15) galaxies within the virial radius of Fornax. The stellar haloes of early-type galaxies are also covered out to about four effective radii. State-of-the-art stellar dynamical and population modelling allows to aim in particular at better characterising the disc components of fast-rotating early-type galaxies, constraining radial variations in the stellar initial-mass functions and measuring the stellar age, metallicity, and α-element abundance of stellar haloes in cluster galaxies. This paper describes the sample selection, observations, and overall goals of the survey, and provides initial results based on the spectroscopic data, including the detailed characterisation of stellar kinematics and populations to large radii; decomposition of galaxy components directly via their orbital structure; the ability to identify globular clusters and planetary nebulae, and derivation of high-quality emission-line diagnostics in the presence of complex ionised gas.

A spectroscopic census of the Fornax cluster and beyond: preparing for next generation surveys

“…A short description of each source of spectroscopy is given below, along with the relevant references for further, more detailed information. Observations targeting single objects within the cluster, such as the Fornax 3D project (Sarzi et al 2018) are not included, as they do not contribute to the redshift census.…”

“…The Fornax cluster has recently been at the centre of several major observing programmes over a wide range of wavelengths. This includes deep optical imaging (Iodice et al 2016;Venhola et al 2018;Eigenthaler et al 2018), optical integral field unit (IFU) observations of selected targets (Scott et al 2014;Mentz et al 2016;Sarzi et al 2018), ALMA observations (Zabel et al 2019;Morokuma-Matsui et al 2019), far-infrared Herschel imaging (Davies et al 2013) and, at radio wavelengths, a survey carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA; Lee-Waddell et al 2018).…”

The Fornax 3D project: Globular clusters tracing kinematics and metallicities

“…The data reduction of the F3D data is described in detail in Sarzi et al (2018) and Iodice et al (2019a), and was performed with the MUSE pipeline 2.2 (Weilbacher et al 2012(Weilbacher et al , 2016. It includes bias and flat-field correction, astrometric calibration, sky subtraction using dedicated sky observations, wavelength and flux calibration.…”

“…In this work, we used the high sensitivity in combination with a high spatial resolution and wide field of view (FOV) of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the Very Large Telescope to extract a large number of background-cleaned GC spectra of 32 galaxies in the Fornax galaxy cluster. These galaxies were observed with MUSE as part of the Fornax3D survey (F3D, Sarzi et al 2018). F3D is a magnitude limited (M V −17 mag) survey that targets all massive galaxies within the virial radius of the Fornax cluster.…”

Discovering novae in early-type galaxies with MUSE: A chance find in NGC 1404, and 12 more candidates from an archival search

“…The source described in this section, hereafter NGC1404-S1, was discovered serendipitously during visual inspection of MUSE data for NGC 1404, a massive elliptical galaxy in the Fornax Cluster. The observation was obtained on 2017 Nov 22 (MJD 58079) for programme 296.B-5054, 'The For-nax3D Survey' (Sarzi et al 2018). The total exposure time is 3600 sec, the point spread function FHWM is ∼0.7 arcsec, and the data were obtained on a photometrically stable night.…”