Author： Revaz Yves
Publisher： oekom verlag
ISSN： 0940-5550
Source： GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, Vol.12, Iss.4, 2003-11, pp. : 282-286
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Abstract
Amongst all objects in the universe, spiral galaxies resemble what could be called cosmic storms. Despite their apparently regular shapes, these huge rotating structures are sometimes subject to strange asymmetries. Fifty years ago, observers found that the outer parts of our galactic disk were not flat, but exhibited an asymmetric warp. Today, about half of the known galaxies are considered as warped, but no theory has been able to explain this phenomenon. Taking a look at this, we first introduce some general concepts about spiral and warped galaxies. Then, we explore the problem of the longevity of warped galaxies when the matter is distributed in a disk. We use a semi-analytic method to study the existence of stable periodic orbits in a warped analytic model. A N-body simulation provides information on the dynamical evolution of a warped galaxy.
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