What flattens elliptical galaxies?

Elliptical Galaxies

Modes of Elliptical Galaxies

Long lived modes of elliptical galaxies can existà la van Kampen. Specific systems may possess long lived oscillations which Landau damp on time scales longer than a Hubble time. Some physical processes such as a close encounter, tidal forces from a cluster or an orbiting satellite could preferentially excite a coherent mode. These may relate to the observed faint structure in elliptical galaxi...

Dynamics of elliptical galaxies.

Elliptical galaxies were once thought to be similar in their structure and dynamics to rotationally flattened bodies like stars. The discovery that elliptical galaxies rotate much more slowly than a fluid body with the same shape has led to a qualitative change in our understanding of the dynamics of these systems. It is now believed that elliptical galaxies are fully triaxial in shape. Self-co...

Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies

Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies

Dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies, with blue absolute magnitudes typically fainter thanMB = 16, are the most numerous type of galaxy in the nearby universe. Tremendous advances have been made over the past several years in delineating the properties of both Local Group satellite dE's and the large dE populations of nearby clusters. We review some of these advances, with particular attention to how...