PI: Sara Ellison, University of Victoria, email@example.com
Address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, PO Box 3055, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada
CoI: Evan Skillman, University of Minnesota
CoI: Aeree Chung, NRAO New Mexico Facilities
Title: Chemical abundances in Virgo cluster spirals - what drives the environmental dependence of galaxy metallicity?
Abstract: The Virgo cluster is not only our nearest massive cluster, but its dynamical infancy also renders it an ideal laboratory for studies of cluster formation and galaxy evolution. Given the intense interest in Virgo, it is astounding that only 9 out of over 100 spirals in its firmament have chemical abundance measurements. We propose to simultaneously address this gap in our fundamental knowledge of Virgo cluster spirals and investigate how the metallicity and abundance gradients of star forming galaxies are sensitive to environment. Our sample consists of 13 Virgo cluster spiral galaxies, preferentially gas-poor early types, which complement the existing metallicity measurements. We also sample a range of clustercentric distances (0.3 -- 3 Mpc from M87), local densities and include several galaxies which exhibit evidence for interactions with the intra-cluster medium.
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