Isophotes of Elliptical Galaxies Isophote “twist” Inner isophotes are round and oriented horizontally Outer isophote is very elliptical and oriented nearly vertical aligned elliptical isophotes “boxy”, rectangular isophotes “disky”, diamond-shaped isophotes
Cartoon of Isophote Twisting True shape and orientation of isophotes Appearance of the isophotes as viewed from the left and below
Stellar Orbits in Triaxial Ellipticals (non-rotating) Only stars on box orbits can pass through the center In all cases (box and tube), stellar orbits fill the 3-d figure Circular orbits only possible in tube orbits
NGC 4649/M60 optical X-ray