Color Separation of Galaxy Types in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data

doi:10.1086/323301

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Iskra Strateva et al. 2001 The Astronomical Journal 122 1861 doi:10.1086/323301

Color Separation of Galaxy Types in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data

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Iskra Strateva¹, Željko Ivezić¹, Gillian R. Knapp¹, Vijay K. Narayanan¹, Michael A. Strauss¹, James E. Gunn¹, Robert H. Lupton¹, David Schlegel¹, Neta A. Bahcall¹, Jon Brinkmann², Robert J. Brunner³, Tamás Budavári^4,5, István Csabai^4,5, Francisco Javier Castander⁶, Mamoru Doi⁷, Masataka Fukugita^8,9, Zsuzsanna Győry^4,5, Masaru Hamabe⁷, Greg Hennessy¹⁰, Takashi Ichikawa¹¹, Peter Z. Kunszt⁴, Don Q. Lamb⁶, Timothy A. McKay¹², Sadanori Okamura⁷, Judith Racusin¹², Maki Sekiguchi⁸, Donald P. Schneider¹³, Kazuhiro Shimasaku⁷ and Donald York⁶

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¹ Princeton University Observatory, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544
² Apache Point Observatory, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059
³ Department of Astronomy, MS105-24, California Institute of Technology, 1201 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218
⁵ Department of Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary, H-1518
⁶ University of Chicago, Astronomy and Astrophysics Center, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637
⁷ Department of Astronomy and Research Center for the Early Universe, School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-0033 Japan
⁸ Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, 3-2-1 Midori, Tanashi, Tokyo, 188-8502 Japan
⁹ Institute for Advanced Study, Olden Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540
¹⁰ US Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20392-5420
¹¹ Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578 Japan
¹² Department of Physics, University of Michigan, 500 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
¹³ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

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Abstract References Cited By

We study the optical colors of 147,920 galaxies brighter than g* = 21, observed in five bands by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) over ~100 deg² of high Galactic latitude sky along the celestial equator. The distribution of galaxies in the g*-r* versus u*-g* color-color diagram is strongly bimodal, with an optimal color separator of u*-r* = 2.22. We use visual morphology and spectral classification of subsamples of 287 and 500 galaxies, respectively, to show that the two peaks correspond roughly to early- (E, S0, and Sa) and late-type (Sb, Sc, and Irr) galaxies, as expected from their different stellar populations. We also find that the colors of galaxies are correlated with their radial profiles, as measured by the concentration index and by the likelihoods of exponential and de Vaucouleurs' profile fits. While it is well known that late-type galaxies are bluer than early-type galaxies, this is the first detection of a local minimum in their color distribution. In all SDSS bands, the counts versus apparent magnitude relations for the two color types are significantly different and demonstrate that the fraction of blue galaxies increases toward the faint end.

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