About the linearity of the color-magnitude relation of early-type
  galaxies in the Virgo cluster
  We revisit the color-magnitude relation (CMR) of the Virgo cluster early-type
galaxies in order to explore its alleged non-linearity. To this aim, we
reanalyze the relation already published from data obtained within the ACS
Virgo Cluster Survey of the Hubble Space Telescope, and perform our own
photometry and analysis of the images of the 100 early-type galaxies observed
as part of this survey. In addition, we compare our results with those reported
in the literature from data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We have found that
when the brightest galaxies and untypical systems are excluded from the sample,
a linear relation arises in agreement with what is observed in other groups and
clusters. The central regions of the brightest galaxies also follow this
relation. In addition, we notice that Virgo contains at least four compact
elliptical galaxies besides the well known object VCC 1297 (NGC 4486B). Their
locations in the <mueff>-luminosity diagram define a different trend to that
followed by normal early-type dwarf galaxies, setting an upper limit in
effective surface brightness and a lower limit in effective radius for their
luminosities. Based on the distribution of different galaxy sub-samples in the
color-magnitude and <mueff>-luminosity diagrams we draw some conclusions on
their formation and the history of their evolution.
