2001/10/22 by Lerothodi L. Leeuw, L. L. Leeuw, T. G. Hawarden +7 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Brightness #Centaurus A #Dust lane #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Infrared #Millimeter #Optics #Physics #RADIUS #Spectral energy distribution #Star formation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Submillimeter Array #Surface brightness #Wavelength #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/324494
14 pages; 6 Gif (4 color) and 2 Postscript figures; Tentatively scheduled to appear in the v565 n1 ApJ January 20, 2002 issue
arxiv created 2001/10/22 · openalex publication_date 2002/01/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Images covering the central 450'' × 100'' (~8.0 kpc × 2.0 kpc) of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) obtained using SCUBA at 850 and 450 μm with beam sizes of 14 5 and 8'', respectively, are presented. These data are compared with those obtained at other wavelengths, in particular the optical, mid-infrared, and far-infrared continuum. The sensitive 850 and 450 μm images show that the submillimeter (submm) continuum morphology and spectral index distribution of Centaurus A comprise four regions: an unresolved AGN core, an inner jet interacting with gas in the dust lane, an inner disk of radius ~90'', and colder outer dust. The inner disk has a high surface brightness, reverse-S-shaped feature in the 850 and 450 μm images that coincides with the regions of intense 7 and 15 μm continuum and a region of active star formation. The infrared (IR) and submm images seem to reveal the same material as predicted by a geometric warped-disk model consisting of tilted rings. We suggest that this scenario is more plausible than that recently proposed in literature, in which the mid-IR emission in Centaurus A is primarily from a bar with a structure that is different from the extended warped disk alone. A dust mass total of 2.2 × 10 6 M ☉ has been calculated within a radius of 225'', 45% of which is in the star-forming region of radius ~90'' about the nucleus.