Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744

Details Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744 Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744

2012-04-04

arxiv.org/abs/1204.1052v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJL

Scientific paper

We identify four rare "jellyfish" galaxies in Hubble Space Telescope imagery of the major merger cluster Abell 2744. These galaxies harbor trails of star-forming knots and filaments which have formed in-situ in gas tails stripped from the parent galaxies, indicating they are in the process of being transformed by the environment. Further evidence for rapid transformation in these galaxies comes from their optical spectra, which reveal starburst, poststarburst and AGN features. Most intriguingly, three of the jellyfish galaxies lie near ICM features associated with a merging "Bullet-like" subcluster and its shock front detected in Chandra X-ray images. We suggest that the high pressure merger environment may be responsible for the star formation in the gaseous tails. This provides observational evidence for the rapid transformation of galaxies during the violent core passage phase of a major cluster merger.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-32999