Abstract.
The luminous barred galaxy NGC 6872 is one of the largest spiral galaxies known. Star formation is traced all along the arms, which extend over more than 100 kpc. The galaxy is likely to be affected by tidal perturbations from the nearby companion IC 4970 passing by on a low-inclination, prograde orbit. We have mapped the large-scale distribution and kinematics of the atomic gas in the NGC 6872/IC 4970 system and carried out N-body simulations. Our aim is to investigate the evolution of gas and stars in such close encounters, examine the influence of a dark matter halo on the length of the tidal tails, and test models of collisionally induced star formation.
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References
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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Horellou, C., Koribalski, B. (2003). The Gigantic Interacting Galaxy NGC 6872. In: Hensler, G., Stasińska, G., Harfst, S., Kroupa, P., Theis, C. (eds) The Evolution of Galaxies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3315-1_39
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3315-1_39
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6248-2
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