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A Note on Mass Loss during Collisions between Galaxies a nd the Formation of Giant Systems

1972; Institute of Physics; Volume: 77; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/111280

1538-3881

J. S. Gallagher, Jeremiah P. Ostriker,

Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

Stars will be liberated from the outer portions of galaxies which interact tidally. Using models based on the density distribution observed in the El galaxy NGC 3379, the mass loss is computed for hyperbolic collisions on an approximate but conservative basis. Binary collisions are then summed to show that large numbers of stars will be evaporated from elliptical members of dense clusters of galaxies. An estimate of 1012 M0 is obtained for the amount of material dispersed by this mechanism in the Coma cluster, and in rich very dense systems (Morgan's Type I) the large amount of tidally dispersed debris may constitute the centrally located "galaxies" designated cD systems which often dominate these clusters.