The Galactic Neighbourhood

Abstract

Several properties of the 131 galaxies known within 9. 1 Mpc are investigated. 88 of these galaxies are concentrated into eight groups, leaving 33 percent of true field galaxies. There are E/S0 and S0 galaxies among the field galaxies; their types must be of cosmogonic origin. the groups have small velocity dispersion which limits the mean mass-to-light ratio for the different types of group galaxies to m/L < 20. Within the supergalactic plane the deviation from an ideal Hubble flow are small: the changes of ΔHO/<HO> with distance and direction are not larger than ten percent; the radial component of the peculiar motion of field galaxies is <25 km s−1. the differential luminosity function of S/Im galaxies is well approximated by a Gaussian with and . the luminosity function of E/S0 galaxies is much flatter with a possible minimum, separating true E's and dwarf ellipticals (Reaves, 1977). the sample galaxies are strongly concentrated toward the supergalactic plane; at a distance of 4 Mpc of the plane the luminosity density drops to half its value. There is also a pronounced luminosity density decrease with increasing distance from the Virgo cluster centre; at a distance of 30 Mpc the density has decreased by more than a factor of 104. the best estimate of the mean luminosity density within a sphere of 30 Mpc radius centered on the Virgo cluster is 1.5 · 108 L⊙ Mpc−3.