Robert Minchin et al. 2007 ApJ 670 1056 doi:10.1086/520620
21 cm Synthesis Observations of VIRGOHI 21—A Possible Dark Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster
FREE ISSUERobert Minchin1,2, Jonathan Davies2, Michael Disney2, Marco Grossi2,3,4, Sabina Sabatini5, Peter Boyce6, Diego Garcia2,7,8, Chris Impey9, Christine Jordan10, Robert Lang2, Andrew Marble9, Sarah Roberts2 and Wim van Driel11
Show affiliationsMany observations indicate that dark matter dominates the extragalactic universe, yet no totally dark structure of galactic proportions has ever been convincingly identified. Previously, we have suggested that VIRGOHI 21, a 21 cm source we found in the Virgo Cluster using Jodrell Bank, was a possible dark galaxy because of its broad line width (~200 km s-1) unaccompanied by any visible gravitational source to account for it. We have now imaged VIRGOHI 21 in the neutral hydrogen line and find what could be a dark, edge-on, spinning disk with the mass and diameter of a typical spiral galaxy. Moreover, VIRGOHI 21 has unquestionably been involved in an interaction with NGC 4254, a luminous spiral with an odd one-armed morphology, but lacking the massive interactor normally linked with such a feature. Numerical models of NGC 4254 call for a close interaction ~108 yr ago with a perturber of ~1011 M
. This we take as additional evidence for the massive nature of VIRGOHI 21, as there does not appear to be any other viable candidate. We have also used the Hubble Space Telescope to search for stars associated with the H I and find none down to an I-band surface brightness limit of 31.1 ± 0.2 mag arcsec-2.
- Subject headings
dark matter; galaxies: individual (VIRGOHI 21); radio lines: galaxies
- Dates
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Issue 2 (2007 December 1)
Received 2006 October 17, accepted for publication 2007 June 1
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21 cm Synthesis Observations of VIRGOHI 21—A Possible Dark Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster
Robert Minchin et al. 2007 ApJ 670 1056
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