A dry galaxy merger joins galaxies with little cold gas, so dissipation and merger-triggered star formation are weak. Conservation of energy followed by re-virialization can make repeated dry minor mergers increase a galaxy's radius faster than its mass.
A minor galaxy merger has a small satellite-to-host mass ratio. Its stars are commonly deposited at large host radii after tidal stripping and Chandrasekhar dynamical friction.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.