Disc heating in NGC 2985 |
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| Authors: | Joris Gerssen Konrad Kuijken Michael R Merrifield |
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| Institution: | Kapteyn Institute, Postbus 800, Groningen 9700 AV, the Netherlands;School of Physics &Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD |
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| Abstract: | Various processes have been proposed to explain how galaxy discs acquire their thickness. A simple diagnostic for ascertaining this 'heating' mechanism is provided by the ratio of the vertical to radial velocity dispersion components. In a previous paper we have developed a technique for measuring this ratio, and demonstrated its viability on the Sb system NGC 488. Here we present follow-up observations of the morphologically similar Sab galaxy NGC 2985, still only the second galaxy for which this ratio has been determined outside the solar neighbourhood. The result is consistent with simple disc-heating models that predict ratios of σ z σ R less than one. |
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| Keywords: | galaxies: individual: NGC 2985 galaxies: kinematics and dynamics |
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