THE ODD OFFSET BETWEEN THE GALACTIC DISK AND ITS BAR IN NGC 3906

THE ODD OFFSET BETWEEN THE GALACTIC DISK AND ITS BAR IN NGC 3906

ABSTRACT We use mid-infrared 3.6 and 4.5 m imaging of NGC 3906 from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) to understand the nature of an unusual offset between its stellar bar and the photometric center of an otherwise regular, circular outer stellar disk. We measure an offset of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal Vol. 808; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
Main Authors: Swardt, Bonita de, Sheth, Kartik, Kim, Taehyun, Stephen Pardy, Elena D' Onghia, Eric Wilcots, Hinz, Joannah, Muñoz-Mateos, Juan-Carlos, Regan, Michael W., Athanassoula, E., Bosma, Albert, Buta, Ronald J., Cisternas, Mauricio, Comerón, Sébastien, Gadotti, Dimitri A., Paz, Armando Gil de, Jarrett, Thomas H., Elmegreen, Bruce G., Erroz-Ferrer, Santiago, Ho, Luis C., Knapen, Johan H., Laine, Jarkko, Laurikainen, Eija, Madore, Barry F., Meidt, Sharon, Menéndez-Delmestre, Karín, Peng, Chien Y., Salo, Heikki, Schinnerer, Eva, Zaritsky, Dennis
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States The American Astronomical Society 20-07-2015
American Astronomical Society
Subjects:
Astrophysics
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Dark matter
Disks
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
galaxies: evolution
galaxies: formation
galaxies: structure
GALAXY CLUSTERS
HYPOTHESIS
INFRARED SPECTRA
INTERMEDIATE INFRARED RADIATION
Kinematics
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
Offsets
PHOTOMETRY
Physics
Simulation
STAR CLUSTERS
Stellar structure
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Summary:ABSTRACT We use mid-infrared 3.6 and 4.5 m imaging of NGC 3906 from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) to understand the nature of an unusual offset between its stellar bar and the photometric center of an otherwise regular, circular outer stellar disk. We measure an offset of ∼910 pc between the center of the stellar bar and photometric center of the stellar disk; the bar center coincides with the kinematic center of the disk determined from previous HI observations. Although the undisturbed shape of the disk suggests that NGC 3906 has not undergone a significant merger event in its recent history, the most plausible explanation for the observed offset is an interaction. Given the relatively isolated nature of NGC 3906 this interaction could be with dark matter substructure in the galaxy's halo or from a recent interaction with a fast moving neighbor that remains to be identified. Simulations aimed at reproducing the observed offset between the stellar bar/kinematic center of the system and the photometric center of the disk are necessary to confirm this hypothesis and constrain the interaction history of the galaxy.
Bibliography:Current Universe
ApJ96905
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/808/1/90