| Type |
Conference Paper |
| Names |
Linda Sparke |
| Proceedings Title |
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society |
| Conference Name |
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #109.09 |
| Volume |
39 |
| Pages |
938 |
| Date |
December 1, 2007 |
| URL |
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AAS...21110909S |
| Library Catalog |
NASA ADS |
| Abstract |
In a polar ring system, a ring of gas, dust and stars orbits almost over
the pole of a central `host’ that is generally a gas-poor S0 or
elliptical galaxy. Gas orbits in the ring and stellar orbits in the host
galaxy sample the gravitational potential in two near-orthogonal planes.
I will discuss how polar rings can be used as a rare probe of the shape
of the galaxy's unseen halo. Results for nearby polar rings point to a
wide dispersion in shape, from a nearly round halo to a halo that is
almost as flattened as the luminous disk.
I would like to thank the National Science Foundation and UW-Madison for
their support of my work on polar ring galaxies. |