High-Velocity Clouds in M 83 and M 51

Abstract

Various scenarios have been proposed to explain the origin of the Galactic high-velocity clouds, predicting different distances and implying widely varying properties for the Galaxy's gaseous halo. To eliminate the difficulties of studying the Galactic halo from within, we have embarked on a program to study anomalous neutral gas in external galaxies, and here we present the results for two nearby, face-on spiral galaxies, M 83 and M 51. Significant amounts of anomalous-velocity HI are detected in deep VLA 21-cm observations, including an extended, slowly rotating disk and several discrete HI clouds. Our detection algorithm reaches a limiting HI source mass of 7x10^5 solar masses, and it allows for detailed statistical analysis of the false detection rate. We use this to place limits on the HVC mass distributions in these galaxies and the Milky Way; if the HVC populations are similar, then the Galactocentric HVC distances must be less than about 25 kpc.