SAURON dynamical modeling of NGC 2974

NGC 2974 is a nearby field elliptical galaxy classified as E4 with detected HI and Hα gas apparently distributed in a disk (Kim et al. 1988; Buson et al. 1993). An earlier study by Cinzano & van der Marel (1994) suggested the galaxy harbors an embedded stellar disk not visible in the photometry. The galaxy was observed with the integral-field spectrograph SAURON (Bacon et al. 2001) mounted on the 4.2m WHT on La Palma, as a part of the survey of a representative sample of nearby E, S0 and Sa galaxies (de Zeeuw et al. 2002). With this individual study we explore the dynamical structure of the object, give a quantitative analysis of the embedded disk structure and investigate the distribution and dynamics of the gas in NGC 2974. A similar analysis is being performed on the galaxies of the sample, providing constraints on galaxy formation scenarios.