Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-07-20
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
to be published in The Dynamics, Structure, and History of Galaxies, G. S. Da Costa & E. M. Sadler, eds., ASP Conf. Ser. (Late
Scientific paper
The Hubble classification scheme of galaxies is based on blue-light appearance. Atlases reveal the rich variety of responses of the Population I component (the "mask") of gas and dust to the underlying, older, stellar population. However, the Population I component may only constitute 5 percent of the dynamical mass of the galaxy; furthermore, dusty masks are highly effective in hiding bars. In the 1960s, Ken Freeman presented a meticulous study of the dynamics of bars at a time when nonbarred galaxies were called "normal" spirals and barred galaxies were regarded as curiosities. Now we know that it is more "normal" for a galaxy to be barred than to be nonbarred. What is the range for gravitational torques of bars? We describe here a recently developed method for deriving relative bar torques by using gravitational potentials inferred from near-infrared light distributions. We incorporate a bar torque class into the Block/Puerari dust-penetrated galaxy classification system. We find a huge overlap in relative bar torque between Hubble (Sa, Sb, ...) and (SBa, SBb, ...) classifications. Application of the method to the high redshift universe is briefly discussed.
Block David L.
Buta Ron
Elmegreen Bruce G.
Elmegreen Debra Meloy
Knapen Johan H.
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