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N. C. Hearn, S. A. Lamb, R. A. Gruendl (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
The collision of an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy frequently produces a significant density perturbation in the gas disk of the spiral, taking the form of a ring or a single arm. The collision of the galaxy system Arp 119 has produced very peculiar morphology in one of the galaxies of the pair, KPG 29A (Mkn 984). At a distance of roughly 200 Mpc, the disturbed galaxy features wisps of material apparently hanging from the denser disk material, and a central pronounced cusp of stars and gas, apparently pointing towards the elongated elliptical galaxy, KPG 29B. It is of interest to determine the nature of these features in both the gas and the stars, and whether they can be accounted for by considering them as projection effects of a typical collisionally produced ring galaxy. The Seyfert 2 designation of the AGN present in Mkn 984 supports the idea that the precursor of this galaxy was a disk galaxy rather than an irregular. In the past, this system has been modeled with purely N-body simulation codes which were used to model the old stellar population and the effects of dynamical friction and shocks on the system. Here, using infrared data in the J- and H-bands, obtained with the wide-field NIRIM camera on the Mount Laguna one meter telescope, together with a variety of optical observations from the literature, Arp 119 is compared with our combined N-body/Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic simulations, and the state of the gaseous, as well as the stellar component is explored. We discuss a possible dynamical history of the collision. The apparent similarities between the morphology of Arp 119 and that of other notable ring galaxy systems is investigated.
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