A co-rotating gas and satellite structure around the interacting galaxy pair NGC 4490/85

Abstract

The interacting binary system NGC 4490/85 = Arp 269 is intermediate in mass between the Milky Way/Large Magellanic Cloud and the Large/Small Magellanic Cloud binary systems. It is a system of 14 known galaxies. We estimate the total Newtonian gravitating mass of the NGC\,4490/85 group to be M_T = (1.37 +- 0.43) times 10^{12} M_Sun using radial velocities and projected separations of its 13~candidate members. The system of dwarf satellites in the group demonstrates signs of coherent rotation in the same direction as that of the extended HI-shell surrounding the central interacting galaxy pair. The origin of this phase-space correlated population of star-forming late-type satellite galaxies raises questions in view of the planes-of-satellites observed around more massive galaxy pairs that are, however, made up of old early-type dwarf galaxies. We also report the detection of a candidate stellar Plume near the binary. This elongated structure of low surface brightness is a likely optical counterpart to the HI-tail north of NGC 4490/85, recently discovered by the FAST radio telescope.