The Distribution of Light in Galaxies: The Edge-on Spiral NGC 4013

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Session 79 -- Structure of Galaxies
Display presentation, Friday, January 14, 9:30-6:45, Salons I/II Room (Crystal Gateway)

[79.02] The Distribution of Light in Galaxies: The Edge-on Spiral NGC 4013

D. Barnaby, H. A. Thronson, G. M. Estep (WIRO)

We present our bulge and disk decomposition of an H-band (1.68 \mic) image of the late-type, edge-on spiral NGC 4013. We model the disk radially as a decaying exponential and vertically as a sech($z$) function, and we fit the bulge with a modified-Hubble profile. From these fits, we find for the disk that the exponential scale length is 2.5 kpc and the exponential scale height is 0.20 kpc. We also find that the bulge core radius is $0.24 \pm 0.02$\hspace{0.3em} kpc. The near-infrared scale parameters are significantly smaller than those derived from optical observations, which can be explained by assuming the edge-on disk is optically thick in absorption at visual wavelengths due to dust.

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