A composite image of the optical light (green), warm gas (pinkish
white), and cold atomic hydrogen gas (blue) in the well known
interacting pair of galaxies known as "The Mice", or NGC 4676. The
nickname of this object derives from
its optical appearance, specifically the narrow tails emering from
oval shaped bodies, reminiscent of two mice . This system is the
result of two
spiral galaxies which are falling together. As
computer simulations demonstrate, the tidal tails are thrown out
after the galaxies pass each other once and are pulled
together by their mutual gravitational attraction. The tails emerge
from the far side of the disks, which is pulled less than the
other parts of the galaxy. The tails are, in effect, the material
that gets "left behind" as the galaxies fall back together.
The atomic hydrogen observations, taken with the VLA in its C- and
D-array configurations, show the tidal tails to be rich in cold gas,
confirming the gas-rich nature of the progenitor disks. The warm gas,
as mapped in the Halpha line emission, is likely heated by the young
massive stars in star forming regions. There are numerous such regions
distributed all along the tails, which may seed the formation of small
stellar systems, and possibly even distinct dwarf galaxies.
Investigator(s): J. Hibbard & J. van Gorkom
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Telescope
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VLA
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Date of Observation
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1991-05-13
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Type of Observation
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Spectral Line Observations
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Wavelength
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21 cm
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Frequency
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1420.4 MHz
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Species
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HI
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Center of Image
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RA: 12:46:10.76, Dec: 30:43:36.00 (J2000)
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Field of View
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0.0500 x 0.0833 degrees
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Technical Caption
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VLA C+D array observations with a resolution of 30".
Optical image is an B-band image, and both this
image and the continuum subtracted Halpha image were obtained
with the KPNO 2.1m telescope.
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