Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...18110603a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #106.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1291
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The galaxy NGC 2146 is a nearby (12.5 Mpc), nearly edge-on peculiar spiral, with a prominent dust lane along it's major axis. There is optical and radio evidence that NGC 2146 has recently undergone both a recent interaction and a nuclear starburst (Kronberg and Biermann 1981; Hutchings et al. 1990). Radial dust filaments and optical emission-line flux ratios indicative of shock heated gas (Hutchings et al.) suggest that a wind may be outflowing along the minor axis of this galaxy. As part of our effort to study the frequency of winds in luminous infrared galaxies, we have obtained soft x-ray images and spectra of NGC 2146 with the PSPC and HRI instruments onboard ROSAT. Our PSPC image shows diffuse emission extending out to a radius of about 3 arcmin (11 kpc), while the HRI image shows a complex central source about 2 arcmin (7 kpc) in diameter. The X-ray emission is therefore considerably larger than the central starburst and does not share the starburst's highly flattened morphology. We suggest that much of the extranuclear X-ray emission arises from a starburst-driven wind. The PSPC spectra can be best fit with a composite model involving both a hard component and a soft thermal component. We suggest the latter arises in wind-shocked clouds in the galaxy halo.
Armus Lee
Heckman Timothy M.
Weaver Kimberley A.
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