Populations and Mass Distributions in Spiral Galaxies
- 1 January 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- Vol. 5 (2), 136-143
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s1323358000016660
Abstract
The distribution of mass in a spiral galaxy is usually inferred from its rotation curve. The curve is most conveniently measured using part of its extreme population I such as HI or HII. This has a low velocity dispersion so that the observed tangential motion is in the absence of non-circular motions (van der Kruit and Allen 1978; Bosma 1981a, b) close to the circular velocity required to balance the gravitational force. The main difficulty is that for a detailed interpretation of the rotation curve one has to make assumptions on some general properties of the mass distribution, even though it is true that one can estimate the total mass within the last measured point to an accuracy of about a factor two. That of axial symmetry is only the simplest of assumptions. On the basis of the light distribution with a usually prominent disk component one often assumes that the mass distribution is also basically highly flattened.Keywords
This publication has 51 references indexed in Scilit:
- Stellar Populations in the GalaxyAnnual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1982
- Abundances in Stellar Populations and the Interstellar Medium in GalaxiesAnnual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1981
- Correlation of the dark mass in galaxies with Hubble typeMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1981
- The size and mass of galaxies, and the mass of the universeThe Astrophysical Journal, 1974
- A Numerical Study of the Stability of Flattened Galaxies: or, can Cold Galaxies Survive?The Astrophysical Journal, 1973
- The Angular Momentum of Spiral Galaxies. Methods of Rotation-Curve AnalysisThe Astrophysical Journal, 1973
- On the Distribution of Matter Within Highly Flattened Galaxies.The Astrophysical Journal, 1963
- On the Distribution Ofmass in Galaxies. I. The Large-Scale Structure of Ordinary Spirals with Applications to M 31.The Astrophysical Journal, 1960
- The Possible Influence of Interstellar Clouds on Stellar Velocities.The Astrophysical Journal, 1951
- The Dynamics of the Interstellar Medium. III. Galactic Distribution.The Astrophysical Journal, 1942