Clarification of the Nature of the Galaxy CFC97 Cen 05

Abstract

The galaxy CFC97 Cen 05 has in the past been considered an HI-rich dwarf galaxy in the nearby Centaurus A group. We have used Australia Telescope Compact Array observations to show that the HI associated with CFC97 Cen 05 by Cote et al. (1997) is most likely a Galactic High Velocity Cloud that is centered ~17' from the optical image of the galaxy. At the optical location of the galaxy, which is not that tabulated by Banks et al. (1999), there is no indication of the presence of HI for velocities less than the upper limit of the HIPASS survey at ~12,500 km/s. In addition, WFPC2 images of CFC97 Cen 05 obtained from the HST Archive reveal that this galaxy is in fact not a dwarf at all, but rather is a distant background spiral not associated with the Centaurus A group.Comment: accepted for publication in the PASP (November 2004