UGC 9618, VV 340, Merging Galaxies, X-Ray
UGC 9618 is a galaxy in the constellation Bootes. UGC 9618, also known as VV 340 or Arp 302 consists of a pair of very gas-rich spiral galaxies which provide a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. An enormous amount of infrared light is radiated by the gas from massive stars that are forming at a rate similar to the most vigorous giant star-forming regions in our own Milky Way. Because it is bright in infrared light, it is classified as a Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG). These observations are part of the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) combining data from Chandra, Hubble, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and ground-based telescopes. The survey includes over two hundred LIRGs in the local Universe. A chief motivation of this study is to understand why LIRGs emit so much infrared radiation. These galaxies generate energy at a rate this is tens to hundreds of times larger than that emitted by a typical galaxy. An actively growing supermassive black hole or an intense burst of star formation is often invoked as the most likely source of the energy. Work on the full GOALS survey is ongoing, but preliminary analysis of data for VV 340 provides a good demonstration of the power of observing with multiple observatories. Release date August 11, 2011.
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Keywords: -ray, 302, 340, 2011, 21st, 9618, acis, advanced, arp, astronomical, astronomy, body, ccd, celestial, century, chandra, cxc, deep, detection, emission, galaxies, galaxy, heavenly, image, imaging, infrared, interacting, lirg, luminous, merging, number, object, observation, observatory, science, sky, space, spectrometer, spiral, ugc, vv
