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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, (443), p. L13, 1995

DOI: 10.1086/187824

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Establishing The Connection Between Peanut-Shaped Bulges And Galactic Bars

Journal article published in 1995 by Konrad Kuijken, Michael R. Merrifield ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

It has been suggested that the peanut-shaped bulges seen in some edge-on disk galaxies are due to the presence of a central bar. Although bars cannot be detected photometrically in edge-on galaxies, we show that barred potentials produce a strong kinematic signature in the form of double-peaked line-of-sight velocity distributions with a characteristic "figure-ofeight " variation with radius. We have obtained spectroscopic observations of two edge-on galaxies with peanut-shaped bulges (NGC 5746 and NGC 5965), and they reveal exactly such line-of-sight velocity distributions in both their gaseous (emission line) and their stellar (absorption line) components. These observations provide strong observational evidence that peanut-shaped bulges are a by-product of bar formation. Subject headings: galaxies: spiral --- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics --- galaxies: structure --- galaxies: individual (NGC 5746, NGC 5965) 1 present address: Kapteyn Instituut, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, t...