How do bars form in spiral galaxies?
Where can I find reliable information about barred spiral galaxies, ie; how they are formed, theories of their evolution, etc.?
The answer of course depends on how in depth you want to go. The standard
texts on galaxies which are used are:
Binney and Merrifield - Galactic Astronomy (mostly observations)
Binney and Tremaine - Galactic Dynamics (more theoretical)
At a slightly lower level I also like
Sparke and Gallagher - Galaxies in the Universe.
There is a page on galaxy formation here from the Paris Observatory which has a reasonable explanation and some movies, however the language is quite technical. Bar formation is actually pretty complicated and has to do with instabilities and resonances being set up in the disk of the galaxy, so I think that a good simple explanation, which is still correct might be hard to find.
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