A counterrotating core in the merger remnant candidate NGC 3656 (ARP 155)

Balcells, Marc; Stanford, S. A.
Bibliographical reference

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 362, Oct. 20, 1990, p. 443-448.

Advertised on:
10
1990
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
19
Refereed citations
17
Description
A study is presented of the internal velocity structure of NGC 3656, a galaxy with several morphological signatures of being in an advanced merger stage. Rotation curves obtained for two slit-position angles show that the inner 1 kpc rotates around an axis roughly perpendicular to the rotation axis in the main body of the galaxy. There are indications that the galaxy is not dynamically relaxed at intermediate radii. The presence of an orthorotating core in a dynamically young galaxy with a dust disk and a shell system provides strong evidence linking kinematically peculiar cores to mergers. However, relating the various merger signatures in this system is not straightforward, as the core and the dust disk rotate around axes perpendicular to each other, which may indicate an independent origin.