Breakthrough Listen

Abstract:

We report the discovery of new, high-velocity narrow-line components of the OH megamaser in IRAS 20100−4156. Results from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)'s Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) provide two independent measurements of the OH megamaser spectrum. We found evidence for OH megamaser clumps at −409 and −562 km s−1 (blue-shifted) from the systemic velocity of the galaxy, in addition to the lines previously known. The presence of such high velocities in the molecular emission from IRAS 20100−4156 could be explained by a ∼50 pc molecular ring enclosing a ∼3.8 billion solar mass black hole. We also discuss two alternatives, i.e. that the narrow-line masers are dynamically coupled to the wind driven by the active galactic nucleus or they are associated with two separate galactic nuclei. The comparison between the BETA and ATCA spectra provides another scientific verification of ASKAP's BETA. Our data, combined with previous measurements of the source enabled us to study the variability of the source over a 26 yr period. The flux density of the brightest OH maser components has reduced by more than a factor of 2 between 1988 and 2015, whereas a secondary narrow-line component has more than doubled in the same time. Plans for high-resolution very long baseline interferometry follow-up of this source are discussed, as are prospects for discovering new OH megamasers during the ASKAP early science programme.

Abstract:

We have discovered a previously unreported poor cluster of galaxies (RGZ-CL J0823.2+0333) through an unusual giant wide-angle tail radio galaxy found in the Radio Galaxy Zoo project. We obtained a spectroscopic redshift of z = 0.0897 for the E0-type host galaxy, 2MASX J08231289+0333016, leading to Mr = −22.6 and a 1.4 GHz radio luminosity density of L1.4 = 5.5 × 1024 W Hz−1. These radio and optical luminosities are typical for wide-angle tailed radio galaxies near the borderline between Fanaroff–Riley classes I and II. The projected largest angular size of ≈8 arcmin corresponds to 800 kpc and the full length of the source along the curved jets/trails is 1.1 Mpc in projection. X-ray data from the XMM–Newton archive yield an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of the thermal emission surrounding RGZ J082312.9+033301 at 1.2–2.6 × 1043 erg s−1 for assumed intracluster medium temperatures of 1.0–5.0 keV. Our analysis of the environment surrounding RGZ J082312.9+033301 indicates that RGZ J082312.9+033301 lies within a poor cluster. The observed radio morphology suggests that (a) the host galaxy is moving at a significant velocity with respect to an ambient medium like that of at least a poor cluster, and that (b) the source may have had two ignition events of the active galactic nucleus with 107 yr in between. This reinforces the idea that an association between RGZ J082312.9+033301 and the newly discovered poor cluster exists.