Possible formation scenarios for the giant H I envelope around the NGC 4490/4485 system

Abstract

We present observations of H I in the nearby interacting galaxies NGC 4490 and 4485 made with the VLA in both C and D arrays. The galaxies are embedded in an extensive envelope of neutral hydrogen which is elongated in a direction approximately perpendicular to the plane of NGC 4490, with an extent of about 56 kpc. We argue that this distribution of neutral hydrogen can best be explained by a galactic-scale bipolar outflow of H I driven by supernovae in NGC 4490. The flow from the disc appears to be reasonably well collimated and has probably persisted for approximately 6 × 108 yr. The implications for galaxy evolution when such mass loss occurs are briefly discussed.