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The recurrent nuclear activity of Fornax A and its interaction with the cold gas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2021

F. M. Maccagni
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, via della Scienza 5, 09047, Selargius (CA), Italy email: filippo.maccagni@inaf.it
P. Serra
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, via della Scienza 5, 09047, Selargius (CA), Italy email: filippo.maccagni@inaf.it
M. Murgia
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, via della Scienza 5, 09047, Selargius (CA), Italy email: filippo.maccagni@inaf.it
F. Govoni
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, via della Scienza 5, 09047, Selargius (CA), Italy email: filippo.maccagni@inaf.it
K. Morokuma-Matsui
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015, Japan
D. Kleiner
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, via della Scienza 5, 09047, Selargius (CA), Italy email: filippo.maccagni@inaf.it
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Abstract

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Sensitive (noise ∼16 μJy beam−1), high-resolution (∼10″) MeerKAT observations of show that its giant lobes have a double-shell morphology, where dense filaments are embedded in a diffuse and extended cocoon, while the central radio jets are confined within the host galaxy. The spectral radio properties of the lobes and jets of reveal that its nuclear activity is rapidly flickering. Multiple episodes of nuclear activity must have formed the radio lobes, for which the last stopped 12 Myr ago. More recently (∼3 Myr ago), a less powerful and short (≲1 Myr) phase of nuclear activity generated the central jets. The distribution and kinematics of the neutral and molecular gas in the centre give insights on the interaction between the recurrent nuclear activity and the surrounding interstellar medium.

Type
Contributed Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

Footnotes

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 679627).

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