Bibcode
Minchin, R. F.; Davies, J. I.; Disney, M. J.; Marble, A. R.; Impey, C. D.; Boyce, P. J.; Garcia, D. A.; Grossi, M.; Jordan, C. A.; Lang, R. H.; Roberts, S.; Sabatini, S.; van Driel, W.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society Meeting 207, #188.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, p.1483
Advertised on:
12
2005
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
Dark Matter supposedly dominates the extragalactic Universe, yet no
totally dark structure of galactic proportions has ever been
convincingly identified. Minchin et al. (2005) suggested that VIRGOHI
21, a 21-cm source found in the Virgo Cluster by Davies et al. (2004),
was probably such a dark galaxy because of its broad line-width (
˜ 200 km s-1) unaccompanied by any visible massive
object to account for it. We have now imaged VIRGOHI 21 in the neutral
hydrogen line, and indeed we find what appears to be a dark, edge-on,
spinning disk with the mass and diameter of a typical spiral galaxy. We
also find that there is an indubitable interaction with NGC 4254, a
luminous spiral with an odd one-armed morphology but lacking the massive
interactor normally linked with such a feature. Published numerical
models of NGC 4254 call for a close interaction ˜ 108
years ago with a perturber of ˜ 1011 M&sun;.
This we take as further, independent evidence for the massive nature of
VIRGOHI 21.
The Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere
Center, which is operated by Cornell University under a cooperative
agreement with the National Science Foundation