Penetrating the Mask: All Spiral Galaxies become Barred on Bar Torque Scales between Zero and Six

Block, D. L.; Buta, R.; Puerari, I.; Knapen, J. H.; Elmegreen, B. G.; Stedman, S.; Elmegreen, D. M.
Referencia bibliográfica

The Dynamics, Structure & History of Galaxies: A Workshop in Honour of Professor Ken Freeman. ASP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 273. Edited by G.S. Da Costa and Helmut Jerjen. ISBN: 1-58381-114-1. San Francisco, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2002., p.97

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2002
Número de autores
7
Número de autores del IAC
0
Número de citas
2
Número de citas referidas
2
Descripción
The Hubble classification scheme of galaxies is based on blue-light appearance. Atlases reveal the rich variety of responses of the Population I component (the "mask") of gas and dust to the underlying, older, stellar population. However, the Population I component may only constitute 5 percent of the dynamical mass of the galaxy; furthermore, dusty masks are highly effective in hiding bars. In the 1960s, Ken Freeman presented a meticulous study of the dynamics of bars at a time when nonbarred galaxies were called "normal" spirals and barred galaxies were regarded as curiosities. Now we know that it is more "normal" for a galaxy to be barred than to be nonbarred. What is the range for gravitational torques of bars? We describe here a recently developed method for deriving relative bar torques by using gravitational potentials inferred from near-infrared light distributions. We incorporate a bar torque class into the Block/Puerari dust-penetrated galaxy classification system. We find a huge overlap in relative bar torque between Hubble (Sa, Sb, ...) and (SBa, SBb, ...) classifications. Application of the method to the high redshift universe is briefly discussed.