Abstract
THE morphological classification of spiral galaxies into various types is suspected to be highly dependent on the wavelength of observation1, because optical images emphasize young population I stars at the expense of other stellar types, as well as ionized gas and dust. Extension of the classification of galaxies out to wavelengths of a few micrometres has had to await the development of large-format near-infrared array cameras. We present here images at 2.1 μm wavelength of NGC309, one of the largest 'grand design' (type ScI) spiral galaxies, obtained with the 256x256 array camera developed for the NICMOS (near-infrared camera and multiobject spectrograph) instrument, designed for installation on the Hubble Space Telescope. Optically, NGC309 presents a classic multi-arm morphology, but at 2.1 μm we see a two-arm spiral and the appearance of a prominent central bar; it resembles the SBa galaxy NGC1358. These studies underscore existing indications2 that the disk structure of spiral galaxies may be unrelated to the Hubble type assigned from the transient population I morphology.
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Block, D., Wainscoatt, R. Morphological differences between optical and infrared images of the spiral galaxy NGC309. Nature 353, 48–50 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/353048a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/353048a0
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