Open AccessUsing an assumption about the monotony of spiral arms to determine the orientation angles of galaxies
Author(s) -
Fridman A. M.,
Poltorak S. G.
Publication year - 2010
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 - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16229.x
Subject(s) - physics , spiral galaxy , galaxy , azimuth , position (finance) , radius , spiral (railway) , astrophysics , orientation (vector space) , calibration , plane (geometry) , position angle , function (biology) , monotonic function , geometry , astronomy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , computer security , finance , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , computer science , economics , biology
A method is proposed for the determination of the position and inclination angles of the plane of a spiral galaxy based on the assumption that every spiral arm is a monotonic function of the radius against azimuthal angle. This method may yield more accurate results than the more commonly employed isophote method, which is subject to a number of drawbacks. Analytical study, calibration against other methods and examples of application of the proposed method to real galaxies are presented.