Abstract
Based on archival Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC images, we have performed stellar photometry for more than 0.6 million stars in the interacting galaxies NGC 5194 and NGC 5195 of the M51 system. Stars of various ages have been identified on the constructed Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: blue and red supergiants, AGB stars, and red giants. The distance to M51 has been measured from the position of the tip of the red giant branch, D = 9.9 ± 0.7 Mpc. We have determined the change in the metallicity of red supergiants along the galactic radius in NGC 5194. Despite the gravitational interaction, the distribution of stars in NGC 5194 does not differ from that in isolated galaxies. The asymmetric stellar structures of NGC5195 (the so-called “feathers”) formed through the interaction of two galaxies have been found to consist mostly of AGB stars.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
X. Arp, Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (Inst. Technol., California, 1961).
E. Baron, P. H. Hauschildt, D. Branch, et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 279, 799 (1996).
N. Bastian, M. Gieles, Yu. N. Efremov, and H. J. G. L. M. Lamers, Astron. Astrophys. 443, 79 (2005a).
N. Bastian, M. Gieles, H. J. G. L. M. Lamers, and R. A. Scheepmaker, Astron. Astrophys. 431, 905 (2005b).
G. Bertelli, A. Bressan, C. Chiosi, et al., Astron. Astrophys. 106, 275 (1994).
A. Bik, H. J. G. L. M. Lamers, N. Bastian, et al., Astron. Astrophys. 397, 473 (2003).
F. Bresolin, D. R. Garnet, and R. C. Kennicutt, Jr., Astrophys. J. 615, 228 (2004).
A. I. Diaz, E. Terlevich, J. M. Vilchez, et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 253, 245 (1991).
P. R. Durrell, J. C. Mihos, J. J. Feldmeier, et al., Astrophys. J. 582, 170 (2003).
J. J. Feldmeier, R. Ciardullo, and G. H. Jacoby, Astrophys. J. 479, 231 (1997).
O. A. Galazutdinova, Candidate’s Dissertation in Mathematical Physics (Nizhn. Arkhyz, 2005).
Ts. B. Georgiev, R. G. Getov, V. I. Zamanova, et al., Astron. Lett. 16, 979 (1990).
M. Gieles, N. Bastian, H. J. G. L. M. Lamers, and J. N. Mout, Astron. Astrophys. 441, 949 (2005).
B. Greenawalt, R. A. M. Walterbos, D. Thilker, and C. G. Hoopes, Astrophys. J. 506, 135 (1998).
K. Iwamoto, K. Nomoto, P. Hoflich, et al., Astrophys. J. 437, 115 (1994).
H. J. G. L. M. Lamers, N. Panagia, S. Scuderi, et al., Astrophys. J. 566, 818 (2002).
M. G. Lee, W. L. Freedman, and B. F. Madore, Astrophys. J. 417, 553 (1993).
M. G. Lee, C. Rupali, and B. C. Whitmore, Astron. J. 130, 2128 (2005).
B. F. Madore and W. L. Freedman, Astron. J. 109, 1645 (1995).
I. Marquez, J. Masegosa, M. Moles, et al., Astron. Astrophys. 393, 389 (2002).
E. Perez-Montero and A. I. Diaz, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 361, 1063 (2005).
W. R. J. Rolleston, S. J. Smartt, P. L. Dufton, and R. S. I. Ryans, Astron. Astrophys. 363, 537 (2000).
H. Salo and E. Laurikainen, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 319, 377 (2000).
A. Sandage and G. A. Tammann, Astrophys. J. 194, 559 (1974).
R. A. Scheepmaker, M. R. Haas, M. Gieles, et al., Astron. Astrophys. 469, 925 (2007).
D. J. Schlegel, D. P. Finkbeiner, and M. Davis, Astrophys. J. 500, 525 (1998).
P. A. Shaver, R. X. McGee, L. M. Newton, et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 204, 53 (1983).
S. J. Smartt, K. A. Venn, P. L. Dufton, et al., Astron. Astrophys. 367, 86 (2001).
P. B. Stetson, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific 106, 250 (1994).
K. Takats and J. Vinko, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 372, 1735 (2006).
N. A. Tikhonov, Doctoral Dissertation inMathematical Physics (S.-Pb.Gos.Univ., St.-Peterburg, 2002).
N. A. Tikhonov, Astron. Rep. 50, 517 (2006).
N. A. Tikhonov, O. A. Galazutdinova, and I. O. Drozdovsky, Astron. Astrophys. 431, 127 (2005).
A. Toomre and J. Toomre, Astrophys. J. 178, 623 (1972).
B. Tully, Nearby Galaxies Catalog (Cambridge Univ., Cambridge, 1988).
B. A. Vorontsov-Velyaminov, Atlas of Interacting Galaxies (Moscow, Fizmatgiz, 1959) [in Russian].
D. Zaritsky, R. C. Kennicutt, and J. P. Huchra, Astrophys. J. 420, 87 (1994).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © N.A. Tikhonov, O.A. Galazutdinova, E.N. Tikhonov, 2009, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2009, Vol. 35, No. 9, pp. 665–675.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tikhonov, N.A., Galazutdinova, O.A. & Tikhonov, E.N. Stellar content of the interacting galaxies of the M51 system. Astron. Lett. 35, 599–608 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773709090035
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773709090035