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In order to study the rotational angular momentum characteristics of galaxies in rich clusters, ellipticities and major-axis position angles have been measured for the largest 100 to 150 galaxies in eight rich clusters: Virgo, Al 19, A400, Al 656 (Coma), A2l47, A2l5l (Hercules), A2197, and A2l99. The following results are reported: (1) galaxies in the cluster A2197 appear to be systematically aligned, (2) elliptical galaxies in Coma seem to be aligned radially with respect to the cluster core, (3) cluster galaxies and local "field" galaxies have similar ellipticity distributions, and (4) SO galaxies may be a mixture of objects with intrinsic ellipticities of 3.5 and 7. It is shown that a galaxy's internal angular momentum remains undisturbed from primordial times unless the galaxy is confined to the core of a rich cluster. These new results seem to be consistent with models of galaxy formation which involve the collapse and subsequent fragmentation of massive cluster-size clouds of gas. Subject headings: galaxies: clusters of - galaxies: formation - galaxies: structure
Laird A. Thompson (Fri,) studied this question.