What Are S0 Galaxies?

Abstract

The data collected in the Shapley-Ames catalog of bright galaxies show that lenticular (S0) galaxies are typically about a magnitude fainter than both elliptical (E) and early spiral (Sa) galaxies. Hubble (1936) was therefore wrong to regard S0 galaxies as being intermediate between morphological types E and Sa. The observation that E5-E7 galaxies are significantly fainter than objects of sub-types E0-E5 suggests that many of the flattest 'ellipticals' may actually be misclassified lenticular galaxies. In particular it is tentatively suggested all E7 galaxies might actually be misclassified S0_1 (7) galaxies. The present results are consistent with the view that galaxies belonging to the S0 class evolved in environments in which they typically lost more than half of their original luminous material.Comment: ApJ (Letters), in press; 1 postscript figur