Open AccessThe colour–magnitude relation of early‐type galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field
Author(s) -
Kodama Tadayuki,
Bower Richard G.,
Bell Eric F.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02542.x
Subject(s) - physics , coma cluster , astrophysics , magnitude (astronomy) , hubble deep field , redshift , galaxy , hubble ultra deep field , stellar population , astronomy , elliptical galaxy , diagram , galaxy cluster , star formation , statistics , mathematics
We present the rest‐frame colour–magnitude diagram for 35 early‐type galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field with median redshift 0.9. Although they have considerable scatter, a red sequence that is well described by the passive evolution of an intrinsically old stellar population is observed. Comparison with the passively evolved colour–magnitude relation of the rich Coma cluster ( z =0.023) indicates that at least ∼1/2 of the early‐type galaxies in the field at this redshift are as old as those in rich clusters.