Bibcode
Cepa, J.; Beckman, J. E.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 239, no. 1-2, Nov. 1990, p. 85-89.
Advertised on:
11
1990
Citations
8
Refereed citations
8
Description
From published catalogs, basic physical properties including diameters,
masses, and neutral hydrogen contents of spiral galaxies have been
studied as a function of the arm class. The results indicate that
galaxies with well-defined arms have longer scale-lengths (a difference
comparable in the red to that in the blue) and are more massive (in both
the stellar and gaseous components) than the galaxies of more flocculent
form, but that these parameters are so scaled that the combined mass
surface density of stars and gas does not vary significantly with arm
class. While postulating that the increased mass is associated with the
formation of well-defined arms, independently of morphological class,
the continuing need for arm-interarm comparisons of star-formation
efficiency to elucidate mechanisms on galaxy-wide scales is stressed.