A numerical simulation of the postcollision disk of gas and dust around NGC 5128 indicates that its distortion is caused by an interaction with the prolate gravitational field. The field was determined by assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio in the elliptical component of the galaxy; the distortion time scale can be explained by the collision theory since the disk must be of recent origin. It is concluded that since the total mass and shape of NGC are accurately determined by observations, the period since the annulus about the center of the galaxy began distorting is within 5 x 10 to the 8th yr, independent of the mass-to-light ratio. This requires that the gas be produced through a collision.
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A. D. Tubbs (1980) studied this question.