The Taffy galaxy pair: optical and radio characterization of an interacting system

A.V. SMITH CASTELLI; C. MENDES DE OLIVEIRA; F.R. FAIFER; A.C. KRABBE; J. SAPONARA; C.G. ESCUDERO; P. BENAGLIA

Congreso; Congreso de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2021

dence suggests that the two galaxies experienced a head-on collision 25 − 30 Myr ago that raised an atomic and molecular gas bridge connecting both galaxies. This system has been poorly studied in the optical and near-infrared. Therefore, we observe the whole Taffy system with Gemini-North in g0, r0, i0, z0, Hα, and HαC bands. We aim to characterise the optical counterparts of several Ultra Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs), detect star clusters, extragalactic star-forming regions, and identify low-mass galaxies of tidal origin. We expect that this additional information will help to better understand the physical processes involved in galaxy interactions,