Arp 143: Collisional Ring Galaxy

Chandra has observed only a handful of collisional ring galaxies to date and in each of them has found multiple luminous non-nuclear X-ray sources that are typically coincident with regions of recent or ongoing star formation. Because the local star formation in galaxies recently involved in collisions is a relatively short-lived phenomenon, these galaxies are particularly favorable targets for studies of the relationships between the origin and evolution of the X-ray sources and the star formation locations and histories. To pursue this type of study, we request a 40-ksec Chandra observation of the collisional ring galaxy Arp 143 to facilitate the development of a quantitative understanding of both the spatial and temporal aspects of the X-ray source/star formation relationships.