NGC 922 – a new drop-through ring galaxy★

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10589.x

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Wiley InterScience

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

Volume 370 Issue 4, Pages 1607 - 1611

Published Online: 7 Jul 2006

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NGC 922 – a new drop-through ring galaxy^★

O. I. Wong ^1,2,3†, G. R. Meurer ² , K. Bekki ⁴ , D. J. Hanish ² , R. C. Kennicutt ⁵ , J. Bland-Hawthorn ⁶ , E. V. Ryan-Weber ⁷ , B. Koribalski ³ , V. A. Kilborn ^3,8 , M. E. Putman ⁹ , J. S. Heiner ^10,11 , R. L. Webster ¹ , R. J. Allen ¹¹ , M. A. Dopita ¹² , M. T. Doyle ¹³ , M. J. Drinkwater ¹³ , H. C. Ferguson ¹¹ , K. C. Freeman ¹² , T. M. Heckman ² , C. Hoopes ² , P. M. Knezek ¹⁴ , M. J. Meyer ¹¹ , M. S. Oey ⁹ , M. Seibert ¹⁵ , R. C. Smith ¹⁶ , L. Staveley-Smith ³ , D. Thilker ² , J. Werk ⁹ and M. A. Zwaan ¹⁷

¹ School of Physics, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia ² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA ³ Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia ⁴ School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia ⁵ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ⁶ Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia ⁷ Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA ⁸ Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia ⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 830 Dennison Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1042, USA ¹⁰ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, the Netherlands ¹¹ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ¹² Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Cotter Road, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia ¹³ Deparment of Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia ¹⁴ WIYN, Inc., 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona, USA ¹⁵ California Institute of Technology, MC 405-47, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ¹⁶ Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile ¹⁷ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching b. München, Germany

Correspondence to †E-mail: iwong@physics.unimelb.edu.au

^★ Based on observations with the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). GALEX is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology under NASA contract NAS5-98034.

KEYWORDS

galaxies: individual: NGC 922 • Galaxy: structure

ABSTRACT

We have found the peculiar galaxy NGC 922 to be a new drop-through ring galaxy using multiwavelength (ultraviolet–radio) imaging and spectroscopic observations. Its 'C'-shaped morphology and tidal plume indicate a recent strong interaction with its companion which was identified with these observations. Using numerical simulations we demonstrate that the main properties of the system can be generated by a high-speed off-axis drop-through collision of a small galaxy with a larger disc system, thus making NGC 922 one of the nearest known collisional ring galaxies. While these systems are rare in the local Universe, recent deep Hubble Space Telescope images suggest they were more common in the early Universe.

Accepted 2006 May 18. Received 2006 April 11; in original form 2005 November 24

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10589.x About DOI