Galactic Contrail in NGC 3627 caused by Dwarf Galaxy Candidate or Massive Black Hole Flyby
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Zhao, Mengke Li, Guang-Xing |
| author_facet | Zhao, Mengke Li, Guang-Xing |
| contents | We report the discovery of a kpc scale molecular contrail in the spiral galaxy NGC 3627, a narrow structure spanning 8 kpc in length with a width of 200 pc and an extreme aspect ratio of 40, observed in both mid-infrared dust emission (PHANGS-JWST) and CO(2-1) gas (PHANGS-ALMA). This contrail size significantly exceeds the size of any known analogs in the Milky Way and exhibits supersonic turbulence (10 km/s). Its morphology and dynamics are consistent with gravitational focusing by a flyby compact object of mass 1e6 M_sun, likely a massive black hole or a dwarf galaxy nucleus, traversing the disk at >300 km/s. The crossing time of such a contrail, estimated from its width and velocity dispersion, is only $\sim 20$ Myr, implying a recent interaction. This contrail can be caused by a dwarf galaxy, or massive black hole nucleus. This discovery establishes galactic-scale contrails as probes of massive dark objects interacting with medium in and around galactic disks. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_20832 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Galactic Contrail in NGC 3627 caused by Dwarf Galaxy Candidate or Massive Black Hole Flyby Zhao, Mengke Li, Guang-Xing Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics We report the discovery of a kpc scale molecular contrail in the spiral galaxy NGC 3627, a narrow structure spanning 8 kpc in length with a width of 200 pc and an extreme aspect ratio of 40, observed in both mid-infrared dust emission (PHANGS-JWST) and CO(2-1) gas (PHANGS-ALMA). This contrail size significantly exceeds the size of any known analogs in the Milky Way and exhibits supersonic turbulence (10 km/s). Its morphology and dynamics are consistent with gravitational focusing by a flyby compact object of mass 1e6 M_sun, likely a massive black hole or a dwarf galaxy nucleus, traversing the disk at >300 km/s. The crossing time of such a contrail, estimated from its width and velocity dispersion, is only $\sim 20$ Myr, implying a recent interaction. This contrail can be caused by a dwarf galaxy, or massive black hole nucleus. This discovery establishes galactic-scale contrails as probes of massive dark objects interacting with medium in and around galactic disks. |
| title | Galactic Contrail in NGC 3627 caused by Dwarf Galaxy Candidate or Massive Black Hole Flyby |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20832 |