| Issue |
A&A
Volume 393, Number 2, October II 2002
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 499 - 502 | |
| Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021060 | |
| Published online | 23 September 2002 | |
Is Messier 74 a barred spiral galaxy?
Near-infrared imaging of M 74
Joint Astronomy Centre, 660 N. A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
Corresponding author: m.seigar@jach.hawaii.edu
Received:
16
May
2002
Accepted:
18
July
2002
We have obtained ground-based I, J and K band images of the spiral galaxy, Messier 74 (NGC 628). This galaxy has been shown to possess a circumnuclear ring of star formation from both near-infrared spectroscopy of CO absorption and sub-millimetre imaging of CO emission. Circumnuclear rings of star formation are believed to exist only as a result of a bar potential. In this paper we show evidence for a weak oval distortion in the centre of M 74. We use the results of Combes & Gerin (1985) to suggest that this weak oval potential is responsible for the circumnuclear ring of star formation observed in M 74.
Key words: galaxies: individual: M 74 / galaxies: fundamental parameters / galaxies: spiral / galaxies: structure
© ESO, 2002
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