Galaxies 09: Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of Galaxies

Brian Kent
NRAO

Galaxy Environment and the HI structure of the Virgo Cluster

Large HI surveys are cataloging the neutral gas content of nearby galaxies. In particular, the wide-field Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey (ALFALFA, Giovanelli et al. 2007, Kent et al. 2008) is making use of the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen to measure the properties of some 30,000 galaxies in the local Universe. The survey samples a variety of galaxy environments, including the nearby Virgo Cluster at 16.7 Mpc. The HI data complements existing databases with information on the luminous stellar and molecular content of the various morphological populations in the cluster. I will discuss the HI content of the galaxies in the cluster, as well as the HI mass function for the sample of member galaxies.

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