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Issue A&A
Volume 406, Number 2, August I 2003
Page(s) 427 - 434
Section Galactic structure and dynamics
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20030516



A&A 406, 427-434 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20030516

Atomic gas far away from the Virgo cluster core galaxy NGC 4388

A possible link to isolated star formation in the Virgo cluster?
B. Vollmer and W. Huchtmeier

Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
(Received 12 February 2003 / Accepted 3 April 2003)

Abstract
We have discovered $6\times 10^{7}~M_{\odot}$ of atomic gas at a projected distance greater than 4 ' (20 kpc) from the highly inclined Virgo spiral galaxy NGC 4388. This gas is most probably connected to the very extended H $\alpha$ plume detected by Yoshida et al. (2002). Its mass makes a nuclear outflow and its radial velocity a minor merger as the origin of the atomic and ionized gas very unlikely. A numerical ram pressure simulation can account for the observed HI spectrum and the morphology of the H $\alpha$ plume. An additional outflow mechanism is still needed to reproduce the velocity field of the inner H $\alpha$ plume. The extraplanar compact HII region recently found by Gerhard et al. (2002) can be explained as a stripped gas cloud that collapsed and decoupled from the ram pressure wind due to its increased surface density. The star-forming cloud is now falling back onto the galaxy.


Key words: galaxies: individual: NGC 4388 -- galaxies: interactions -- galaxies: ISM -- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics

Offprint request: B. Vollmer, bvollmer@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

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