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| Mice Galaxies | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Mice Galaxies |
| Caption | Interaction between two spiral galaxies in a late-stage merger |
| Type | Interacting spiral galaxies |
| Constellation | Coma Berenices |
| Distance | ~290 million light-years |
| Names | NGC 4676A and NGC 4676B |
Mice Galaxies The Mice Galaxies are a well-studied interacting pair of spiral galaxies consisting of NGC 4676A and NGC 4676B in the Coma Berenices region, notable for long tidal tails produced by a close encounter, and serving as prototypes for tidal interaction, merger remnant, and starburst studies. The system has been observed across major observatories and surveys such as the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Very Large Array, informing models tied to the Local Group, Virgo Cluster, and broader hierarchical formation frameworks. Their clear tidal features have made them targets in comparative analyses alongside systems like the Antennae Galaxies, M51, and Arp catalog objects, influencing theories developed by researchers at institutions including Harvard, Caltech, ESA, and NASA.
The pair NGC 4676A and NGC 4676B is cataloged within the New General Catalogue and resides in proximity to the Coma Cluster and Leo Supercluster, attracting attention from observatories such as Palomar, Mount Wilson, Keck, and Gemini, and from surveys including 2MASS, GALEX, Pan-STARRS, and SDSS. The system’s morphology and kinematics have been central to theoretical work at institutions like the Institute of Astrophysics, MPIA, CfA, and JPL, and have been modeled using simulations developed at Princeton, MIT, and the Max Planck Institutes, often referenced in conferences hosted by AAS, IAU, and EPS.
The galaxies were first cataloged in the 19th century and later imaged by photographers and spectroscopists working with the Royal Observatory, Lick Observatory, and observatories connected to Cambridge and Leiden, with modern follow-up via HST instruments WFPC2 and ACS, Chandra ACIS, Spitzer IRAC, and Herschel PACS. Observational campaigns coordinated through NRAO, ESO, and NAOJ provided radio, optical, infrared, and X-ray datasets, while archival work at STScI and data releases from SDSS, GALEX, and 2MASS enabled multi-epoch studies cited in journals like Nature, Science, Astrophysical Journal, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The system shows two principal nuclei resembling classical Sa–Sb spirals with stellar disks, bulges, and pronounced tidal tails that extend tens of kiloparsecs, features analyzed in morphological taxonomies by Arp, de Vaucouleurs, Hubble, and Sandage. Photometric decompositions using software from STScI, ESO, and NOAO estimate stellar masses and surface brightness profiles compared against templates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and 2MASS, while spectroscopic campaigns at Keck, VLT, and Palomar provided redshifts, metallicities, and rotation curves. Comparative morphology places the pair alongside Antennae, Stephan’s Quintet, M81 Group interactions, and Arp 299 in parameter spaces used by researchers at Cambridge, Yale, and UC Berkeley.
N-body and hydrodynamic simulations from groups at Princeton, Columbia, Cambridge, and the Max Planck Society reproduce the long tidal tails via prograde–retrograde passages, with encounter geometry constrained by kinematic data from Keck DEIMOS, VLT FLAMES, and Gemini GMOS. Dynamical friction, tidal stripping, and angular momentum transfer have been characterized using codes developed at LLNL, LANL, and SLAC and compared to merger trees from cosmological simulations at the Kavli Institute, Harvard–Smithsonian CFA, and the Millennium Simulation team. The system serves as a testbed for theories by Toomre & Toomre, Barnes & Hernquist, and others, informing models used at Caltech, Carnegie Observatories, and JILA.
Enhanced star formation in tidal knots and central regions has been mapped with HST, Spitzer, GALEX, and Herschel, showing young stellar clusters analogous to those in the Antennae and in M82, with rates inferred from Hα, UV, IR, and radio diagnostics employed at NRAO, ESO, and NASA Goddard. Spectroscopy from Keck and VLT probes potential low-luminosity AGN signatures and LINER-like emission, debated in papers from teams at Johns Hopkins University, University of Arizona, and the University of Toronto, and contextualized via comparisons to Seyfert galaxies cataloged by Véron-Cetty & Véron and surveys by SDSS and 2dF.
X-ray imaging from Chandra and XMM-Newton resolve hot gas and possible ultra-luminous X-ray sources studied in programs at NASA, ESA, and JAXA, while radio continuum and HI mapping from the VLA, WSRT, and Arecibo reveal neutral gas bridges and tidal reservoirs similar to structures in M101 and the Magellanic Bridge studied by CSIRO and NAOJ. Infrared observations by Spitzer and Herschel constrain dust temperatures and obscured star formation, complementing optical integral-field spectroscopy from MUSE (ESO) and KCWI (Caltech) that map ionized gas, stellar populations, and feedback, linking results to surveys run by IPAC, NOAO, and the UKIRT teams.
The pair provides empirical constraints on hierarchical assembly, starburst triggering, and bulge growth in frameworks advanced by White & Rees, Springel, and Hopkins, informing semi-analytic models used at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Yale, and the Center for Astrophysics. Studies of the system contribute to understanding the fate of interacting spirals in environments like the Coma Cluster, the transformation into elliptical remnants as cataloged in the RC3, and the role of mergers in black hole growth explored by groups at Harvard, Caltech, and the Flatiron Institute, making the system a touchstone in courses and reviews taught at Oxford, Cambridge, and Princeton.
Category:Interacting galaxies