WINGS-SPE Spectroscopy in the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey^*

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 3512 Padova, Italy
² Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Fisica, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
³ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/Vía Lactea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain e-mail: acava@iac.es
⁴ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia
⁵ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (C.S.I.C.) Apartado 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
⁷ Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento di Astronomia, Vicolo Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
⁸ Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
⁹ Copenhagen University Observatory. The Niels Bohr Insitute for Astronomy Physics and Geophysics, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Received: 19 September 2008
Accepted: 5 December 2008

Abstract

Aims. We present the results from a comprehensive spectroscopic survey of the WINGS (WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey) clusters, a program called WINGS-SPE. The WINGS-SPE sample consists of 48 clusters, 22 of which are in the southern sky and 26 in the north. The main goals of this spectroscopic survey are: (1) to study the dynamics and kinematics of the WINGS clusters and their constituent galaxies, (2) to explore the link between the spectral properties and the morphological evolution in different density environments and across a wide range of cluster X-ray luminosities and optical properties.

Methods. Using multi-object fiber-fed spectrographs, we observed our sample of WINGS cluster galaxies at an intermediate resolution of 6–9 Å and, using a cross-correlation technique, we measured redshifts with a mean accuracy of ~45 km s^-1.

Results. We present redshift measurements for 6137 galaxies and their first analyses. Details of the spectroscopic observations are reported. The WINGS-SPE has ~30% overlap with previously published data sets, allowing us both to perform a complete comparison with the literature and to extend the catalogs.

Conclusions. Using our redshifts, we calculate the velocity dispersion for all the clusters in the WINGS-SPE sample. We almost triple the number of member galaxies known in each cluster with respect to previous works. We also investigate the X-ray luminosity vs. velocity dispersion relation for our WINGS-SPE clusters, and find it to be consistent with the form .