Smooth dark spiral arms in the flocculent galaxy NGC2841

Details Smooth dark spiral arms in the flocculent galaxy NGC2841 Smooth dark spiral arms in the flocculent galaxy NGC2841

Jun 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996natur.381..674b&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 381, Issue 6584, pp. 674-676 (1996).

Physics

25

Scientific paper

OPTICAL images of the arms of spiral galaxies invariably show massive blue stars forming in ridges of interstellar gas and dust1. These are particularly striking in 'grand-design' galaxies, in which the stellar positions are influenced by spiral density waves1. By contrast, many galaxies have a 'flocculent' appearance, with no obvious evidence of spiral structure at visible wavelengths. Here we report infrared observations of the prototype flocculent galaxy NGC2841, which reveal a remarkable system of long, dark spiral arms. These arms arise from concentrations of dust; they are hidden at optical wavelengths by light scattered from the dust. The mechanism that has organized the gas and dust into these dark arms is at present unclear; the arms might be highly sheared dense clouds, or they might correspond to density waves in the interstellar medium driven by an elongated central bulge, which would not affect the stable stellar disk.

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