Atlas and Catalog of Collisional Ring Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper compiles a comprehensive catalog and imaging atlas of 127 classical collisional ring galaxies, including their properties, companions, and rare sub-classes, based on existing literature and new observations.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive catalog and imaging atlas of collisional ring galaxies, including new positional data and identification of rare double/concentric RING systems.

Findings

127 collisional RING systems cataloged and illustrated

Many RINGS have confirmed or plausible colliders

Rare double/concentric RING galaxies identified

Abstract

We present a catalog and imaging atlas of classical (collisional) RING galaxies distilled from the Arp-Madore Atlas of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations and supplemented with other known RING galaxies from the published literature. The catalog lists the original host object, compiles available redshifts and presents newly determined positions for the central (target) galaxy and its nearest companion(s). 127 collisional RING systems are illustrated and their components identified. All of the RINGS have plausible colliders identified; many are radial-velocity confirmed companions. Finally, we make note of the existence of a rare sub-class of RING galaxies exemplified by AM 2136-492, double/concentric RING galaxies. These objects are predicted by numerical simulations, but they appear to be quite rare and/or short-lived in nature.