Issue |
A&A
Volume 376, Number 1, September II 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 59 - 68 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010885 | |
Published online | 15 September 2001 |
NGC 3310, a galaxy merger?
1
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
2
Osservatorio Astronomico, Bologna, Italy
Corresponding author: M. Kregel, kregel@astro.rug.nl
Received:
20
March
2001
Accepted:
18
June
2001
The Hi structure and kinematics of the peculiar
starburst galaxy NGC 3310 (Arp 217, UGC 5786) are discussed. New evidence bearing on the origin of the
starburst is presented. The bulk of Hi coincides with the
bright optical disk and shows differential rotation. Its velocity
dispersion is, however, unusually large for a spiral galaxy (up to
40 km s-1), suggesting that the disk is highly perturbed
as already indicated by optical emission line spectroscopy. There are,
in addition, two prominent Hi tails, one extending to the
north-west and the other, somewhat patchy, to the south. These
Hi tails, the perturbed kinematics and the peculiar optical
morphology strongly suggest a recent merger between two gas-rich
galaxies. This seems to have been a major merger in which most of the
gas in the inner parts has been preserved in neutral atomic form and
either one of the progenitor disks has survived or a new disk has
formed.
Key words: galaxies: individual: NGC 3310 / galaxies: starburst / galaxies: interactions / galaxies: kinematics and dynamics / radio lines: galaxies
© ESO, 2001
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