Two Tails in NGC 3656 and the Major Merger Origin of Shell and Minor-Axis Dust Lane Elliptical Galaxies
Open Access
- 10 September 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Astronomical Society in The Astrophysical Journal
- Vol. 486 (2) , L87-L90
- https://doi.org/10.1086/310854
Abstract
I report on the discovery of two faint (~26.8 R mag arcsec-2) tidal tails around the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 3656 (Arp 155). This galaxy had previously been interpreted as a case of accretion, or minor merger. The two tidal tails are inconsistent with a minor merger and point instead to a disk-disk major merger origin. NGC 3656 extends Toomre's merger sequence toward normal elliptical galaxies and hints at a major merger origin for shells and minor-axis dust lanes. A dwarf galaxy lies at the tip of one of the tidal tails. A prominent shell, which shows sharp azimuthal color discontinuities, belongs to a rotating dynamical component with young stars that includes the inner dust lane.Keywords
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