2006/01/01 by William C. Keel, William C. Keel, Raymond E. White III +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Barred spiral galaxy #Bulge #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gravitation #Jet (fluid) #Radio galaxy #Solar mass #Spiral (railway) #Spiral galaxy #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/508340
In press, Astron. J. 9 figures; 8 in shrunk JPEG form. Supported by NASA through STScI grant HST-GO-09376.01 and Chandra grant GO4-5118X
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · arxiv created 2006/08/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present new Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ), Gemini South, and Chandra observations of the radio galaxy 0313-192, which hosts a 350 kpc double source and jets, even though previous data have suggested that it is a spiral galaxy. We measure the bulge scale and the luminosity, radial, and vertical profiles of disk starlight and consider the distributions of H II regions and absorbing dust. In each case the HST data confirm its classification as an edge-on spiral galaxy, the only such system known to produce such an extended radio source of this kind. The Gemini near-IR images and Chandra spectral fit reveal a strongly obscured central active galactic nucleus (AGN), seen through the entire interstellar medium path length of the disk and showing X-ray evidence of additional absorption from warm or dense material close to the central object. We consider several possible mechanisms for producing such a rare combination of AGN and host properties, some combination of which may be at work. These include an unusually luminous bulge (suggesting a black hole of mass ∼8 × 10 8 M ⊙ ), the orientation of the jets near the pole of the gas-rich disk, and some evidence of a weak gravitational interaction that has warped the disk and could have enhanced fueling of the central engine. We detect an X-ray counterpart of the kiloparsec-scale radio jet emerging to the south; jet/counterjet limits on both radio and X-ray regimes allow them to be symmetric if seen more than 15° from the plane of the sky, still consistent with the jet axes being within ∼30° of the poles of the gas-rich galaxy disk. A linear or disklike emission-line structure is seen around the nucleus, inclined by ∼20° to the stellar disk but nearly perpendicular to the jets; this may represent the aftermath of a galaxy encounter, in which gas is photoionized by a direct view of the nuclear continuum.