Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

Radio AGN with WISE W4 jets?

  • Ghost_Sheep_SWR by Ghost_Sheep_SWR

    When searching for brown dwarfs my attention was drawn by SDSS J080126.30+505226.5 - SDSS ID 1237663548511551553 - Ra,dec 120.359792 50.874058 (no spectrum redshift available).

    http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr14/en/tools/explore/Summary.aspx?id=1237663548511551553

    which is probably a radio AGN (also variable radio source from NVSS & FIRST in VizieR) following the WISE band images.

    But then I noticed this distinct spiral (galaxy) shape in only WISE W4 band that looks like a barred two-armed spiral with very loose spiral arms that cannot be seen anywhere else. Not in optical or other IR surveys (although IRIS seems to low resolution for this particular feature). Its apparent size is nearly 1 arcminute from tip to tip.

    Ofcourse I've considered the possibility of random W4 noise, but after some further research this doesn't seem to be the case because a) the shape is clearly seen in two image sets in WISE viewer and b) it is clearly FAR above average noise level (and c not impossible but very low chance of randomly forming this exact shape in W4).

    At first I posted it on The Milky Way Project forum because I thought it was maybe a W4 spiral galaxy. There moderator Melina_t was very helpful and explained that if it is a spiral galaxy it should definitely also be visible in W3 even if obscured by gas/dust. W3 is mainly caused by stars and W4 by heated dust. So if it is real it's probably heated and shocked dust, and symmetrically shaped like this does look like some form of jets.

    Link to IRSA finder chart

    Please see below images centered on SDSS J080126.30+505226.5 to see what I mean.

    enter image description here


    Could this be jets emanating from radio AGN SDSS J080126.30+505226.5 heating and shocking surrounding dust which are visible in WISE W4 band only? Or perhaps some other real phenomena?

    Alexander

    Posted

  • Dolorous_Edd by Dolorous_Edd

    In Radio it looks pretty boring

    It is what we call a compact radio source both in FIRST and NVSS, don't see anything special here

    as for WISE , I don't know, WISE 4th band has crappy reslution so blending could be a problem here

    Posted

  • Ghost_Sheep_SWR by Ghost_Sheep_SWR in response to Dolorous_Edd's comment.

    Yeah W4 is usually pretty messy hence this one looked particularly interesting.

    So nothing special in radio, too bad, might have been a nice indicator of something better.

    Thanks for your input!

    Posted