Abstract
The distinction between elliptical and disk galaxies is often explained by invoking different rates of dissipation and star formation in the proto-galactic gas clouds from which they are presumed to have formed1–3. Another possibility is raised by the suggestion that many ellipticals are the remnants of galaxies that merged while suffering the tidal distortion and violent relaxation of a slow encounter4,5. Various N-body simulations indicate that merging can account for many of the observed properties of bright elliptical galaxies6–9, although some reservations have been expressed about the possibility of accounting for their low rotation velocities10. My aim here is to consider a specific model for the formation of disk galaxies by dissipation and the formation of bright ellipticals by merging and to suggest that it can account for their rotation properties in a natural way.
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Fall, S. Dissipation, merging and the rotation of galaxies. Nature 281, 200–202 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/281200a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/281200a0
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