Massive young stars emit ionizing ultraviolet radiation that creates H II regions. Recombination and radiative cascades produce H-alpha emission, including the transition. Shocks or other ionizing sources can also produce it, but disk star-forming gas is the natural interpretation for an extended spiral-galaxy rotation measurement.
The systemic redshift and inclination of an intrinsically circular thin disk are
The rotation-induced half-width is . Divide by the systemic observed wavelength to remove the common redshift factor before applying the small-velocity Doppler shift:
The circular-orbit and thin-disk assumptions neglect intrinsic thickness, warps and noncircular gas motion.

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