Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998astl...24...73s&link_type=abstract
Astronomy Letters, Volume 24, Issue 1, January 1998, pp.73-83; Pis'ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 24, p. 97
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
7
Scientific paper
We have made a detailed observational and theoretical study of the northern component of the interacting system NGC 4676 (the Mice). The main structural characteristics of the galaxy are determined from photometric and spectral observations. Special emphasis is placed on the study of the tidal tail. Numerical modeling shows that the kinematics of the tails is incompatible with the classical model of the Mice, which reproduces only the morphological features of the object. It is concluded that the galaxies of the system have massive extended halos. Kinematical analysis of the peripheral regions of the tidal tails in the interacting galaxies may provide data on the distribution of dark matter in the galaxies, independent of data provided by other methods. Spectral observations of the tidal tail of the main component made it possible to distinguish H condensations, which are apparently giant HII complexes. A lower limit for the star formation rate is estimated to be 10^9 M_solar yr^1 pc^2. Analytical estimates and numerical calculations indicate that the main star formation mechanism in the tidal tail of the Mice is large-scale gravitational instability in the gas of the tail. The masses of the condensations formed as the result of these instabilities are consistent with data on the optical luminosities of the observed HII regions.
Reshetnikov V. P.
Sotnikova Natalia Ya.
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