Density Maps of Disk Stars (IMAGE)
Caption
Density maps of disk stars illustrating the global morphological transformation of a galactic disk subject to bombardment by dark matter substructures. Brighter colors indicate regions of higher density of disk stars. The left panel shows the initial disk, while the right panel depicts the final disk after the violent gravitational encounters with the orbiting substructures. The edge-on (upper panels) and face-on (bottom panels) views of the disk are displayed in each frame. Satellite-disk interactions of the kind expected in the currently favored cosmological model produce several distinctive signatures in galactic disks including: long-lived, low-density, ring-like features in the outskirts; conspicuous flares; bars; and faint filamentary structures above the disk plane that resemble tidal streams. These morphological features are similar to those being discovered in the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, and in other spiral galaxies.
Credit
Image courtesy of Stelios Kazantzidis, Ohio State University.
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