Optical, radio, and X-ray structure in NGC 1275.

Details Optical, radio, and X-ray structure in NGC 1275. Optical, radio, and X-ray structure in NGC 1275.

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996aj....112...91m&link_type=abstract

Astronomical Journal v.112, p.91

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

40

Galaxies: Individual: Ngc 1275, X-Rays: Galaxies, Radio Lines: Galaxies, Galaxies: Active

Scientific paper

We have compiled U, I, Hα, radio, and x-ray maps of NGC 1275 in order to study the galaxy's structure and color distribution. There are strong indications that the radio source is interacting with the gaseous medium in NGC 1275. A ~2 mag spread in U-I color is found across the face of the galaxy. The brightest and bluest structure in the U-band image is located along the northern radio lobes and cavity walls in the x-ray emission. Correspondingly bright features are absent along the southern radio lobe. The low velocity Hα emission avoids the cavities in the x-ray emission occupied by the radio lobes. The global distribution of excess blue light, Hα emission, and brightest x-ray emission occur over similar spatial scales (~30-40 kpc). However, the x-ray and optical structures are not correlated in detail. We have detected a faint blue continuum from the outer, "crab-like" low velocity filaments, which may signal ongoing star formation there. In addition, we have detected blue continuum toward the high velocity emission regions, perhaps from stars associated with the high velocity gas. Dark features, probably associated with dust, surround the nucleus and extend in filaments to the north- west. We suggest the dust surrounding the nucleus is associated with NGC 1275 itself, whereas the dust to the north-west may be associated with the high velocity system. The color distribution is consistent with population ages ranging from ~10 Myr to 1 Gyr superposed on an older, elliptical background population. The formation of the youngest (brightest, bluest) population along the radio lobes may have been induced by shock compression of cold gas along the northern radio lobe. This interpretation is complicated, however, by the superposition of light toward both high and low velocity gas to the north-west of the nucleus and the pole-on aspect of the radio source. The cooling rate of the x-ray-emitting gas in the central 20 kpc or so is comparable to the estimated star formation rates over the past several hundred Myr. However, the x-ray structure is more complicated than simple cooling flow models would predict, and there are indications that the dense x-ray structures are falling into the galaxy and have not had time to cool. A merger with a gas-enriched galaxy [Holtzman et al. AJ, 103,691(1992)] may have contributed to the structure.

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