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Rodrigo Carrasco |
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The brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the core of Abell 3827 is perhaps the most extreme example of an on-going galaxy cannibalism at the present. The BCG is a super-giant elliptical galaxy that appears to be in a process of devouring at least five other galaxies. The extended asymmetric halo presented in the center provides additional evidence of one or more recent mergers. This is very uncommon given the fact that the fraction of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCG) undergoing current major mergers is quite low. One of the most impressive signatures of this super-giant galaxy is the presence of features arising from strong gravitational lensing. In this talk I present the results of our imaging and spectroscopic observations in Abell 3827 with GMOS-S. I report the discovery of strong gravitational arcs at the center of the cluster and present the model for the distribution of mass derived from the strong lens features. In addition, we show that the kinematical analysis of a large fraction of cluster members suggests that the system is undergoing a cluster merger. We explore the implications of these findings as they relate to the evolution of BCGs in massive clusters and discuss our future observations.
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