Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

Out the side

  • Ptd by Ptd

    Could this be some merger type activity with the Radio source displaced from the centre?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Ptd's comment.

    A bit of a puzzle (for me, anyway).

    It could be a #doublelobe of a very distant AGN, so far away that it doesn't show up even in the IR.

    Or it may be an #overedge, the E lobe, with a similar W lobe off to the right. If so, the core/host may be a faint IR source, and perhaps SDSS J124554.41+143900.6 (z_ph ~0.42). Here's the FIRST image:

    enter image description here

    Posted

  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    I don't think that we can say anything about this system being a merger and I do not think that the IR galaxy that is next to the radio source in the centre is just a chance alignment.

    I suspect that this is a very distant source where the host galaxy is not visible. My reason for suspecting this is because if the host is not very clear from the IR, it would be even more difficult for us to see it in an optical survey such as SDSS. Check out @raynorris's blog entry about #IFRS: http://blog.galaxyzoo.org/2014/01/24/ifrs-the-first-supermassive-black-holes/

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    @ivywong Thanks! 😃

    Could you please say a few words on how - in principle - astronomers such as yourself would go about working out which of these three ideas (hypotheses) is correct? Including the possibility that all three are wrong 😉

    Posted

  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    @JeanTate: I definitely can be wrong here because there are so many possibilities but here is my train of thought:

    • assuming that the #hourglass morphology is a true representation of a "normal" hourglass/double lobed source, I would assume that host is right in the middle of the 2 lobes
    • although we do not expect the lobes to be perfectly perpendicular the axis of the double lobe, I cannot imagine a jet structure to take an immediate left/right turn after being emitted from a host galaxy (note: this is based on the usual jet structure but of course, I could also be wrong as Mother Nature seems to like throwing curveballs at us every so often).
    • we can't verify the merger situation because we can't see the set of obvious signs of double core or tidal structure

    -i do not think that this is an overedge either because typical double-lobed hotspots, even if they are widely-separated usually have one "peak" or "front" and rarely are they divided into 2spots on one side...

    Does this help?

    Posted