NGC 6221 is a nearby spiral classified as Sbc(s) by Sandage & Tammann (1981) and as SBc(s) by de Vaucouleurs et al. (1991). In The Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies (Panel 189) Sandage & Bedke (1994) describe its morphology as semichaotic with two symmetric heavy dust lanes starting from the nucleus and threading through the middle of the opposite thick arms, which begin at the centre. They also stated that although the galaxy is not strongly barred its dust pattern is similar to that of prototype SBb galaxies, characterized by two straight dust lanes. An overview of the optical properties of the galaxy is given in Table 1.
NGC 6221 forms an apparent physical pair with the late-type spiral
NGC 6215. They have a systemic velocity of
(this paper) and
43
(RC3) respectively. Their angular distance
is about 26' (RC3) corresponding to a projected linear separation of about
227 kpc at a mean distance of 30 Mpc (
).
The galaxy is also possibly interacting with two newly discovered
low-surface brightness galaxies nearby (Koribalski 1996a).
The dynamics of the ionized gas component in this galaxy has been studied by Pence & Blackman in 1984 (hereafter P&B). They measured a conspicuous S-shaped pattern in the ionized gas velocity field, showing that large velocity gradients occur at the position of the dust lanes in the bar. They have been interpreted as the signature of shock fronts of the gas which reverses its motion from outward to inward as it passes through them.
Philipps (1979) reported that the nuclear spectrum of NGC 6221 exhibits
signatures of emission originating from regions and also a weak
Seyfert 2 component.
He concluded however that the emission line spectrum can be interpreted as
gas being ionized by hot young stars without the need to introduce a
non-thermal component in the galaxy nucleus. The analysis of the spatial
distribution of the ionized gas
(Durret & Bergeron 1987) confirmed this
picture. Some dozens of
regions were identified in the disk region
extending as far as 9 kpc from the galaxy nucleus. Although the emission in
the nucleus appears to be extended (
), the authors
conclude that the main ionizing sources are OB stars and that UV
and X-ray radiation from the nuclear source might not penetrate the
heavily obscured nuclear region.
Dottori et al. (1996) also recently
suggested that the nucleus of NGC 6221 may harbour sources of type
and also a Seyfert 2 source.
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In this paper we study the kinematics of the ionized gas and the stellar components in NGC 6221. We present the velocity curves and the velocity dispersion profiles of gas and stars obtained along five different position angles by means of long-slit spectroscopy.
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