2008/07/21 by A. J. Barth, Aaron J. Barth, M. C. Bentz +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Nucleus #Offset (computer science) #Peculiar galaxy #Sky #Velocity dispersion #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/591905
4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2008/07/21 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present the discovery of a triplet of emission-line nuclei in the disturbed disk galaxy NGC 3341, based on archival data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and new observations from the Keck Observatory. This galaxy contains two offset nuclei within or projected against its disk, at projected distances of 5.1 and 8.4 kpc from its primary nucleus and at radial velocity separation of less than 200 km s −1 from the primary. These appear to be either dwarf ellipticals or the bulges of low-mass spirals whose disks have already been stripped off while merging into the primary galaxy. The inner offset nucleus has a Seyfert 2 spectrum and a stellar velocity dispersion of 70 ± 7 km s −1 . The outer offset nucleus has very weak emission lines consistent with a LINER classification, and the primary nucleus has an emission-line spectrum close to the boundary between LINER/H II composite systems and H II nuclei; both may contain accreting massive black holes, but the optical classifications alone are ambiguous. The detection of an offset active nucleus in NGC 3341 provides a strong suggestion that black hole accretion episodes during minor mergers can be triggered in the nuclei of dwarf secondary galaxies as well as in the primary.