Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-02-25
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
sumbmitted to MNRAS
Scientific paper
Tidal tails composed of stars should be unstable to the Jeans instability and this can cause them to look like beads on a string. The Jeans wavelength and tail diameter determine the wavelength and growth rate of the fastest growing unstable mode. Consequently the distance along the tail to the first clump and spacing between clumps can be used to estimate the mass density in the tail and its longitudinal velocity dispersion. Clumps in the tidal tails of the globular cluster Palomar 5 could be due to Jeans instability. We find that their spacing is consistent with the fastest growing mode if the velocity dispersion in the tail is similar to that in the cluster itself. While all tidal tails should exhibit gravitational instability, we find that clusters or galaxies with low concentration parameters are most likely to exhibit short wavelength rapidly growing Jeans modes in their tidal tails.
Comparetta Justin
Quillen Alice. C.
No associations
LandOfFree
Jeans Instability of Palomar 5's Tidal Tail 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 Jeans Instability of Palomar 5's Tidal Tail, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Jeans Instability of Palomar 5's Tidal Tail will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-288707