The combined-color image of NGC 4324 was obtained from the galaxy.
Russian astronomers have studied NGC 4324, a neighboring lenticular galaxy, using the Caucasus Mountain Observatory. They discovered young star-forming complexes in this galaxy’s inner ring. Our understanding of the creation and evolution of NGC 4324 may be improved by the discoveries, which were published on arXiv.org on October 14.
The early-type lenticular galaxy NGC 4324, also known as UGC 07451, is roughly 66,000 light-years across and is situated around 85 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Although its total mass is thought to be at least ten times bigger, it has a stellar mass of about 56 billion solar masses.
Previous investigations of NGC 4324 revealed its unusual structure—a bright blue ring of star formation embedded in a large-scale stellar disc typical of lenticular galaxies—and found that it contains a huge amount of gas.
Irina Proshina and her colleagues from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia examined the star formation pattern in the ring of NGC 4324. They utilized the 2.5-m telescope at the Caucasus Mountain Observatory for this purpose. Archival photographs from the SDSS, GALEX, and WISE surveys were used to supplement the study.
“We made the decision to use the MaNGaL instrument, a mapper with an adjustable filter, to capture complete images of the galaxy NGC 4324 in narrow photometric bands focused on the H and [NII]-6583 emission lines. On April 17, 2018, the 2.5-m telescope at the Caucasus Mountain Observatory was used to conduct the observations “In their report, the researchers noted.
The investigation found a total of 18 young star-forming clusters, each with a mean size of roughly 1,600 light years. The largest clusters have estimated star masses of up to 10 million solar masses, it was discovered.
The findings imply that the starbursts in these clumps have only been active for about 10 million years. The stars that could have been created during a previous starburst, which occurred around 200 million years ago, were not able to contribute to the far-ultraviolet luminosity (FUV) luminosity because they had already exploded or because their luminosity peak had moved to the near-ultraviolet (NUV), causing the observed dip in the FUV of the clumps.
The distribution of star-forming complexes in the ring of NGC 4324 appears to be regular, according to the study. This shows that spiral and lenticular galaxies have similar physical star creation processes in small sizes.
The researchers came to the conclusion that their observations support the theory that gas-rich satellite galaxies or massive clouds may have fallen into NGC 4324, fueling the disc with gas.
“Due to the gravitational instability that fires star formation, clumps occur in the ring. The shock waves from growing complexes of giant OB stars—the first formed clusters of young stars in the gaseous clumps—are likely the next star formation catalysts in the gaseous ring. Another starburst may also be caused by the impact of a satellite or a large gas cloud onto the galactic disc. As a result, the chain of “gaseous clumps—stellar complexes” that we have discovered represents a sequence of how star formation has spread both in space (in the ring) and time “the paper’s authors explained.
