1,252 research outputs found
Radio monitoring of NGC 7469: Late time radio evolution of SN 2000ft and the circumnuclear starburst in NGC 7469
We present the results of an eight-year long monitoring of the radio emission
from the Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG) NGC 7469, using 8.4 GHz Very Large
Array (VLA) observations at 0.3'' resolution. Our monitoring shows that the
late time evolution of the radio supernova SN 2000ft follows a decline very
similar to that displayed at earlier times of its optically thin phase. The
late time radio emission of SN 2000ft is therefore still being powered by its
interaction with the presupernova stellar wind, and not with the interstellar
medium (ISM). Indeed, the ram pressure of the presupernova wind is \rho_w v_w^2
\approx 7.6E-9 dyn/cm^2, at a supernova age of approximately 2127 days, which
is significantly larger than the expected pressure of the ISM around SN 2000ft.
At this age, the SN shock has reached a distance r_{sh \approx 0.06 pc, and our
observations are probing the interaction of the SN with dense material that was
ejected by the presupernova star about 5820 years prior to its explosion. From
our VLA monitoring, we estimate that the swept-up mass by the supernova shock
after about six years of expansion is \approx 0.29 M_sun, assuming an average
expansion speed of the supernova of 10000 km/s.
We also searched for recently exploded core-collapse supernovae in our VLA
images. Apart from SN 2000ft (S_\nu \approx 1760 microJy at its peak,
corresponding to 1.1E28 erg/s/Hz, we found no evidence for any other radio
supernova (RSN) more luminous than \approx 6.0E26 erg/s/Hz, which suggests that
no other Type IIn SN has exploded since 2000 in the circumnuclear starburst of
NGC 7469.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Optical detection of the radio supernova SN 2000ft in the circumnuclear region of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 7469
SN 2000ft is detected in two independent Planetary Camera images (F547W and
F814W) taken May 13, 2000, about two months before the predicted date of the
explosion (July 19, 2000), based on the analysis of its radio light evolution
by Alberdi and collaborators. The apparent optical magnitudes and red color of
SN 2000ft indicate that it is observed through an extinction of at least A=
3.0 magnitudes. The extinction corrected lower limit to the absolute visual
magnitude (M 18.0), identifies SN 2000ft as a luminous supernova
in the optical, as other luminous radio supernovae before. SN 2000ft exploded
in a region located at only 0.1 arcsec (i.e. 34 +/- 3 pc) west of a faint
cluster (C24). No parent cluster is identified within the detection limits of
the HST short exposures. The unambiguous detection of SN 2000ft in the visual
shows that multi-epoch sub-arcsecond (FWHM less than 0.1 arcsec) optical
imaging is also a valid tool that should be explored further to detect
supernovae in the dusty (circum)nuclear regions of (U)LIRGs
Outflows of hot molecular gas in ultra-luminous infra-red galaxies mapped with VLT-SINFONI
We present the detection and morphological characterization of hot molecular
gas outflows in nearby ultra-luminous infrared galaxies, using the near-IR
integral-field spectrograph SINFONI on the VLT. We detect outflows observed in
the 2.12 micron H 1-0 S(1) line for three out of four ULIRGs analyzed;
IRAS 12112+0305, 14348-1447, and 22491-1808. The outflows are mapped on scales
of 0.7-1.6 kpc, show typical outflow velocities of 300-500 km/s, and appear to
originate from the nuclear region. The outflows comprise hot molecular gas
masses of ~6-8x10 M(sun). Assuming a hot-to-cold molecular gas mass ratio
of 6x10, as found in nearby luminous IR galaxies, the total (hot+cold)
molecular gas mass in these outflows is expected to be ~1x10 M(sun). This
translates into molecular mass outflow rates of ~30-85 M(sun)/yr, which is a
factor of a few lower than the star formation rate in these ULIRGs. In
addition, most of the outflowing molecular gas does not reach the escape
velocity of these merger systems, which implies that the bulk of the outflowing
molecular gas is re-distributed within the system and thus remains available
for future star formation. The fastest H outflow is seen in the
Compton-thick AGN of IRAS 14348-1447, reaching a maximum outflow velocity of
~900 km/s. Another ULIRG, IRAS 17208-0014, shows asymmetric H line
profiles different from the outflows seen in the other three ULIRGs. We discuss
several alternative explanations for its line asymmetries, including a very
gentle galactic wind, internal gas dynamics, low-velocity gas outside the disk,
or two superposed gas disks. We do not detect the hot molecular counterpart to
the outflow previously detected in CO(2-1) in IRAS 17208-0014, but we note that
our SINFONI data are not sensitive enough to detect this outflow if it has a
small hot-to-cold molecular gas mass ratio of < 9x10.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (11 pages, 10 figures
Detection and Mapping of Decoupled Stellar and Ionized Gas Structures in the Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy IRAS 12112+0305
Integral field optical spectroscopy with the INTEGRAL fiber-fed system and
HST optical imaging are used to map the complex stellar and warm ionized gas
structure in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy IRAS 12112+0305. Images
reconstructed from wavelength-delimited extractions of the integral field
spectra reveal that the observed ionized gas distribution is decoupled from the
stellar main body of the galaxy, with the dominant continuum and emission-line
regions separated by projected distances of up to 7.5 kpc. The two optical
nuclei are detected as apparently faint emission-line regions, and their
optical properties are consistent with being dust-enshrouded weak-[OI] LINERs.
The brightest emission-line region is associated with a faint (m_{I}= 20.4),
giant HII region of 600 pc diameter, where a young (about 5 Myr) massive
cluster of about 2 10 dominates the ionization.
Internal reddening towards the line-emitting regions and the optical nuclei
ranges from 1 to 8 magnitudes, in the visual. Taken the reddening into aacount,
the overall star formation in IRAS 12112+0305 is dominated by starbursts
associated with the two nuclei and corresponding to a star formation rate of 80
yr.Comment: 2 figures, accepted to Ap.J. Letter
Chandra Observations of Arp 220: The Nuclear Source
We present the first results from 60ks of observations of Arp 220 using the
ACIS-S instrument on Chandra. We report the detection of several sources near
the galaxy's nucleus, including a point source with a hard spectrum that is
coincident with the western radio nucleus B. This point source is mildly
absorbed (N_H ~ 3 x 10^22 cm^-2) and has an estimated luminosity of 4 x 10^40
erg/s. In addition, a fainter source may coincide with the eastern nucleus A.
Extended hard X-ray emission in the vicinity raises the total estimated nuclear
2-10 keV X-ray luminosity to 1.2 x 10^41 erg/s, but we cannot rule out a hidden
AGN behind columns exceeding 5 x 10^24 cm^-2. We also detect a peak of soft
X-ray emission to the west of the nucleus, and a hard point source 2.5 kpc from
the nucleus with a luminosity of 6 x 10^39 erg/s.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
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