Discovery of an isolated compact elliptical galaxy in the field
  We present the discovery of an isolated compact elliptical (cE) galaxy, found
during a search of SDSS DR7 for cEs, and for which we obtained WHT/ACAM
imaging. It is ~900 kpc distant from its nearest neighbour, has an effective
r-band radius of ~500 pc and a B-band mean surface brightness within its
effective radius of 19.75 mag/arcsec. Serendipitous deep SuprimeCam imaging
shows that there is no underlying disk. Its isolated position suggests that
there is an alternative channel to the stripping scenario for the formation of
compact ellipticals. We also report analysis of recent deeper imaging of the
previous candidate free-flying cE, which shows that it is, in fact, a normal
dwarf elliptical (dE). Hence the new cE reported here is the first confirmed
isolated compact elliptical to be found in the field.
