The rotation curves shapes of late-type dwarf galaxies

Understand

We present rotation curves derived for a sample of 62 late-type dwarf galaxies that have been observed as part of the Westerbork HI Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies (WHISP) project.

• The rotation curves were derived by interactively fitting model data cubes to the observed cubes, taking rotation curve shape, HI distribution, inclination, and the size of the beam into account.
• This makes it possible to correct for the effects of beam smearing.
• The dwarf galaxies in our sample have rotation-curve shapes that are similar to those of late-type spiral galaxies, in the sense that their rotation curves, when expressed in units of disk scale lengths, rise as steeply in the inner parts and start to flatten at two disk scale lengths.