Open AccessQuarter‐turn spirals just beyond the principal arms of galaxies
Author(s) -
Polyachenko E. V.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05202.x
Subject(s) - physics , turn (biochemistry) , astrophysics , spiral (railway) , spiral galaxy , galaxy , astronomy , set (abstract data type) , gravitation , principal (computer security) , theoretical physics , mathematical analysis , nuclear magnetic resonance , mathematics , computer science , programming language , operating system
Observations in the optical show that grand design spirals consist of a set of principal arms and characteristic near‐circular extensions that can be described as quarter‐turn spirals. Arguments are presented in favour of the idea that the latter set of spirals is merely caused by the response of the material of the disc to the gravitational potential of the main spiral arms.