Strange hourglass: SDSS J104429.26+113811.3
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jiipee
SDSS reveal an elliptic galaxy at the center of the right source. There is a mysterious(?) strong jet to the "west" creating a hourglass without a source in the middle.
Could it be a merger? In SDSS there is a dim area just left from the center of J104429.2+113811
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jiipee
VLA FIRST (1.4 GHz), image size 0.0334
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JeanTate
in response to jiipee's comment.
Could it be a merger? In SDSS there is a dim area just left from the center of J104429.2+113811
Here's the SDSS image of the core (SDSS J104429.26+113811.3), zoomed in:
Its redshift - 0.230 - and bright core strongly suggests that the galaxy has an AGN; the spectrum confirms this. The color (yellowish-white) and the strong Balmer absorption lines suggest a post-quench (or almost) galaxy, a.k.a. an E+A or K+A galaxy (i.e. a galaxy whose spectrum resembles that of an elliptical galaxy (or spectroscopic class K star) plus an A star). Post-quench galaxies are often found in environments which zooites classify - broadly speaking - as 'merger'.
As cosmic chance would have it, this galaxy is indeed in the Quench Sample in the Zooniverse Quench project; it's ID there is AGS00001ai. Quench zooites classified it as "Smooth -> Completely round; [not merging]; not-symmetrical"; however, only the Quench Science Team has access to the actual classifications, and the reported Quench classification summaries have been plagued by errors, so it's worth taking the reported - summary - classification with a grain of salt.
In short, well-spotted jiipee! 😄
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DocR
scientist
Looks just like a very nice (and quite rare) #onesidedjet (i don't think that's a real hashtag). Famous examples in this category include 3C273, a quasar and M87 (which shows big lobes on both sides, but only one jet). Presumably these single jets are due to "relativistic beaming" - but that's a topic for another time.
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