Bibcode
Jiménez-Vicente, J.; Battaner, E.; Rozas, M.; Castañeda, H.; Porcel, C.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.342, p.417-425 (1999)
Advertised on:
2
1999
Journal
Citations
17
Refereed citations
16
Description
The nearly face-on spiral galaxy NGC 3938 has been observed in the
H_alpha line with the TAURUS II Fabry-Perot interferometer at the
William Herschel Telescope in order to study the kinematics of the
ionized gas. We are able to construct intensity, velocity and velocity
dispersion maps for this galaxy. The rotation curve of the galaxy is
calculated up to 4.5 radial scale lengths from the galactic centre. The
residual velocity field shows very small values with no systematic
pattern. The mean velocity dispersion is approximately constant with
radius at about 11 km s(-1) as previously reported for the neutral and
molecular gas. We have also studied the relation between intensity and
velocity dispersion for the ionized gas. We have found that this
distribution is compatible with a turbulent gas relaxing to a Kolmogorov
type turbulence as the stationary regime. The average dispersion varies
with intensity as sigma ~ I(1/8) although it becomes much steeper at
higher intensities, for which the dispersion is kept almost constant at
a value of about 19 km s(-1) . Based on observations made with the
William Herschel Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the
Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los
Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias