Grand-Design Spirals in the Core of NGC 5248

March 2001 • 2001Ap&SS.276..475L

Authors • Laine, S. • Knapen, J. H. • Pérez-Ramírez, D. • Doyon, R. • Nadeau, D.

Abstract • We report the detection of a bisymmetric nuclear spiral structure in the spiral galaxy NGC 5248. The two red spiral arms can be followed for about 3 arcsec, before they appear to end inside the radius of the circumnuclear starburst `ring' at about 5.5 arcsec or 400 pc distance from the nucleus. We combine our near-infrared Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope adaptive optics images with traditional near-infrared and optical images and show that spiral structure is present in this galaxy at spatial scales reaching from a hundred parsecs to 15 kpc. Comparison with a Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet image shows how the starburst ring is related to the nuclear spiral structure. We also show a two-dimensional H_α velocity field that reveals no evidence for systematic streaming motions near the nuclear spiral or the starburst ring, nor for a rapidly rising rotation curve.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2001Ap%26SS.276..475L
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1017576024087