A CO molecular gas wind 340 pc away from the Seyfert 2 nucleus in ESO420-G13 probes an elusive radio jet*
Journal article, 2020
A prominent jet-driven outflow of CO(2-1) molecular gas is found along the kinematic minor axis of the Seyfert 2 galaxy ESO 420-G13, at a distance of 340-600 pc from the nucleus. The wind morphology resembles the characteristic funnel shape, formed by a highly collimated filamentary emission at the base, and likely traces the jet propagation through a tenuous medium, until a bifurcation point at 440 pc. Here the jet hits a dense molecular core and shatters, dispersing the molecular gas into several clumps and filaments within the expansion cone. We also trace the jet in ionised gas within the inner less than or similar to 340 pc using the [NeII](12.8 mu m) line emission, where the molecular gas follows a circular rotation pattern. The wind outflow carries a mass of similar to 8 x 10(6) M-circle dot at an average wind projected speed of similar to 160 km s(-1), which implies a mass outflow rate of similar to 14 M-circle dot yr(-1). Based on the structure of the outflow and the budget of energy and momentum, we discard radiation pressure from the active nucleus, star formation, and supernovae as possible launching mechanisms. ESO 420-G13 is the second case after NGC 1377 where a previously unknown jet is revealed through its interaction with the interstellar medium, suggesting that unknown jets in feeble radio nuclei might be more common than expected. Two possible jet-cloud configurations are discussed to explain an outflow at this distance from the AGN. The outflowing gas will likely not escape, thus a delay in the star formation rather than quenching is expected from this interaction, while the feedback effect would be confined within the central few hundred parsecs of the galaxy.
ISM: jets and outflows
techniques: high angular resolution
galaxies: evolution
galaxies: individual: ESO 420-G13
galaxies: active
submillimeter: ISM
Author
J. A. Fernandez-Ontiveros
National Observatory of Athens
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
University of La Laguna
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
K. M. Dasyra
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
University of Athens
National Observatory of Athens
E. Hatziminaoglou
European Southern Observatory Santiago
M. A. Malkan
University of California
M. Pereira-Santaella
University of Oxford
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
M. Papachristou
University of Athens
National Observatory of Athens
L. Spinoglio
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
F. Combes
Sorbonne University
Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC)
Susanne Aalto
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
N. Nagar
University of Concepcion
M. Imanishi
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
P. Andreani
European Southern Observatory Santiago
C. Ricci
Beijing University of Technology
Diego Portales University
R. Slater
Universidad Andrés Bello
Astronomy and Astrophysics
0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)
Vol. 633 A127Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Aerospace Engineering
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/201936552