Young Star Clusters and CO Gas\\ in the Galaxy Merger, NGC 7727 (Arp 222)

Previous abstract Next abstract

Session 107 -- Galaxies: Morphology and Interactions
Display presentation, Thursday, 12, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

[107.14] Young Star Clusters and CO Gas\\ in the Galaxy Merger, NGC 7727 (Arp 222)

Dennis R. Crabtree, Tammy Smecker-Hane (DAO)

The morphology of NGC 7727 (Arp 222) in the optical and near infrared suggests that it is the product of a merger of two disk galaxies after approximately 1 Gyr that will become an elliptical galaxy. We have obtained high-resolution images of NGC 7727 from which we have identified 23 candidate young globular clusters. The mean colors of the clusters imply ages of 1 Gyr (modulo internal reddening) and we infer that the clusters formed in the merger. We discuss the surface brightness profile of the galaxy, and the bright, secondary nucleus that we found in the inner 5 arcmin. In addition, we have detected CO(2--1) emission from NGC 7727 corresponding to 1.0 x $10^{8}$ solar masses of gas. NGC 7727 appears very similar to NGC 7252 in morphology and the presence of a young cluster population but appears to have a much smaller molecular gas content.

Thursday program listing