Bibcode
Spence, R. A. W.; Zaurín, J. Rodríguez; Tadhunter, C. N.; Rose, M.; Cabrera-Lavers, A.; Spoon, H.; Muñoz-Tuñón, C.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 459, Issue 1, p.L16-L20
Advertised on:
6
2016
Citations
8
Refereed citations
8
Description
We present deep new Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) narrow-band images
and William Herschel Telescope (WHT) long-slit spectroscopy of the
merging system Mrk273 that show a spectacular extended halo of warm
ionized gas out to a radius of ˜45 kpc from the system nucleus.
Outside of the immediate nuclear regions (r > 6 kpc), there is no
evidence for kinematic disturbance in the ionized gas: in the extended
regions covered by our spectroscopic slits the emission lines are
relatively narrow (full width at half-maximum, FWHM ≲ 350 km
s-1) and velocity shifts small (|ΔV| ≲ 250 km
s-1). This is despite the presence of powerful near-nuclear
outflows (FWHM > 1000 km s-1; |ΔV| > 400 km
s-1; r < 6 kpc). Diagnostic ratio plots are fully
consistent with Seyfert 2 photoionization to the NE of the nuclear
region, however to the SW the plots are more consistent with
low-velocity radiative shock models. The kinematics of the ionized gas,
combined with the fact that the main structures are aligned with
low-surface-brightness tidal continuum features, are consistent with the
idea that the ionized halo represents tidal debris left over from a
possible triple-merger event, rather than a reservoir of outflowing gas.