Study investigates kinematics and origin of gas in the galaxy NGC 2655

Utilizing the 6-meter telescope of the Particular Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the two.5-meter telescope of the Caucasian Mountain Observatory (CMO), Russian astronomers have noticed an enormous galaxy generally known as NGC 2655. Outcomes of the observational marketing campaign, introduced January 12 on the arXiv preprint server, shed extra gentle on the kinematics and origin of ionized gasoline on this galaxy.

At a distance of about 79.5 million light years, NGC 2655 is a big disk galaxy within the constellation Camelopardalis. The diameter of the disk of NGC 2655 is roughly 195,000 gentle years, whereas the mass of the galaxy’s stellar inhabitants is estimated to be 200 billion solar plenty.

NGC 2655 is the brightest member of the NGC 2655 group, which incorporates seven galaxies brighter than −15 magazine, and all of them are of the late sort. This means that the entire gasoline content material of NGC 2655 might end result from accumulating the encompassing dwarfs by the central galaxy.

The gasoline content material of NGC 2655 drew the eye of a staff of astronomers led by Olga Silchenko of the Lomonosov Moscow State College in Russia. They inspected this galaxy utilizing SAO and CMO.

“NGC 2655 is a testbed case of extremely inclined rotation of gasoline within the absence of any star formation in a gas-rich S0, which is of specific curiosity for us…. We have now undertaken some extra observations and are actually able to look into the small print of how and when the gasoline has come to NGC 2655,” the researchers wrote within the paper.

The observations discovered that NGC 2655 has two exponential disks. These disks have totally different scale lengths and in addition totally different orientations of the isophote main axis. On the whole, the outcomes counsel that the inner and exterior rotation axes of the stellar disk of NGC 2655 are inclined to one another. Due to this fact, the astronomers concluded that NGC 2655 is a multi-spin galaxy.

Moreover, the research discovered that the orientations of the large disk of impartial hydrogen and the outer stellar disk in NGC 2655 coincide with one another each spatially and kinematically. The astronomers added that the outer gaseous disk lies inside the outer stellar disk, and that even present star formation is going down someplace in it.

Based on the paper, the obtained knowledge verify {that a} minor merger came about in NGC 2655, which was instructed by earlier research. The researchers suppose {that a} small satellite galaxy struck the central a part of NGC 2655 nearly vertically about 10 million years in the past.

“Apparently, a companion fell onto the galaxy nearly vertically, and now, inside two kiloparsecs from the middle, we observe the remnants of the destroyed companion as a circumpolar loop—the image is similar to Sagittarius dwarf torn aside by the Milky Way,” the authors of the paper defined.

Nevertheless, they famous that within the case of NGC 2655, there was rather more gasoline within the merged companion. Attempting to clarify the origin of ionized gasoline in NGC 2655, the scientists due to this fact concluded that the gasoline of the vertically infalling companion hit the galaxy’s gaseous disk experiencing common rotation. This collision created a shock wave that excited the gasoline within the polar loop and ran outward throughout the big galactic gaseous disk.

© 2023 Science X Community