Mapping Tidal Interactions in the M51 System

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We present deep R-band imaging of the NGC 5194/94 (M51) galaxy pair obtained with the WIYN 0.9-m telescope. Dithered R-band images are mosaicked to provide a wider field of view covering the main body of the interacting system. We estimate stellar densities in the outer features from surface photometry and look for small structures to locate possible outer sites of recent star formation. We interpret our data in the context of simulations of the interactions in the M51 system. The northern region in particular contains several unusual features around NGC 5195, such as sharp stellar density gradients, multiple debris streams, stellar shell candidates, and radial dust streamers which are not reproduced by models. We also note differences between the northern and southern tidal streams in terms of gas content, star formation and which galaxy appears to be the source of the stars.
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation's REU program and the Department of Defense's ASSURE program through NSF Award AST-0453442.

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