Atomic Gas in the NGC 5018 Group

VLA atomic hydrogen observations of the NGC 5018 group. The upper panel is the optical image from the Digital Sky Survey, while the lower panel shows the same optical image to fainter light levels, with contours indicating the distribution of the cold atomic gas. NGC 5018 is classified as a normal E3 elliptical galaxy, but at fainter light levels the galaxy exhibits a peculiar morphology, with many shells, ripples and loops. The VLA spectral line observations shows gas associated with a number of spiral galaxies in the group, and a few clouds which are not apparently associated with any optically identified system. Most interestingly, there is an extended gas "bridge" of material connecting two spirals on either side of NGC 5018, and the gaseous bridge appears to bend to avoid the elliptical.

Radio data are VLA D-array observations at 60" resolution. HI contours start at a level of 3x10¹⁹ atoms cm^-2, with successive contours a factor of two higher.

Legacy Astronomical Images

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Legacy Astronomical Image

NGC5018

P. Guhathakurta, J. van Gorkom, G. Knapp, D.W. Kim

Very Large Array (VLA)

1987-05-13

spectral line

21 cm

1420.4 MHz

HI

RA 13:13:5.500, Dec: -19:28:28.000 (J2000)

0.466667 x 0.433333 degrees

Galaxies Series

Early-type Unit