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The Counter-Rotating Twin Disks in NGC 4550

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

Hans-Walter Rix ,
Marijn Franx ,
David Fisher  and
Garth Illingworth
Hans-Walter Rix
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, 08540, U.S.A.
Marijn Franx
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138
David Fisher
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Garth Illingworth
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Abstract

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We discuss the striking kinematic properties of the S0 galaxy NGC 4550. A detailed analysis of the line-of-sight velocity distribution (LOSVD) along the major axis shows that this galaxy contains two cold, cospatial, counterrotating disks with indistinguishable scale lengths and luminosities. The two disks, twins save the signs of their spin, are also found to have exponential luminosity profiles. We discuss qualitatively how this system might have formed.

Keywords

galaxies: kinematicsgalaxies: lenticularsgalaxies: individual: NGC 4550
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 153: Galactic Bulges , 1993 , pp. 421 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1993 

References

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Rix, H.-W., Franx, M., Fisher, D. and Illingworth, G. (1992) ApJL, 400, L5.Google Scholar