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arXiv 0705.3710astro-ph
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斯皮策对两个椭圆星系中瞬时扩展尘埃的观测:星系核中最近反馈能量释放的新证据

Spitzer Observations of Transient, Extended Dust in Two Elliptical Galaxies: New Evidence of Recent Feedback Energy Release in Galactic Cores

Pasquale Temi, Fabrizio Brighenti, William G. Mathews

摘要:

斯皮策望远镜对两个光学正常的椭圆星系中扩展尘埃的观测提供了一个新的证据,证实了这些星系周围热气大气中的浮力反馈外流。AGN的反馈能量是防止大规模冷却和恒星形成所必需的。在NGC 5044中,我们观察到8微米至约5 kpc的星际(可能是PAH)发射。NGC 5044和NGC 4636都有70微米的冷尘埃辐射,超过了恒星质量损失的预期。这些尘埃在~ 1 keV的星际气体中的溅射寿命延长了~10^7年,这就确定了尘埃第一次进入热气体的时间。显然,扩展的尘埃起源于尘埃盘或云,通常在椭圆星系核心观察到,这些尘埃盘或云被破坏,加热并向外输送。NGC 5044和NGC 4636中幸存的中心尘埃已经分裂成许多小的丝状物。值得注意的是,NGC 5044中不对称扩展的8微米发射与来自暖气体的H α +[NII]发射在空间上是一致的。计算表明,从星系核心向外移动的热气体在尘埃的辅助下冷却,大约在10^7年内可以冷却到几千秒差距,这解释了观测到的光学线发射。两个星系的X射线图像都受到了干扰。瞬时活动的所有时间尺度--热气体平衡和浮力传输的恢复、幸存尘埃碎片的动力学以及尘埃溅射--都与大约10^7年前两个星系中反馈能量的中心释放相一致。

英文摘要:

Spitzer observations of extended dust in two optically normal elliptical galaxies provide a new confirmation of buoyant feedback outflow in the hot gas atmospheres around these galaxies. AGN feedback energy is required to prevent wholesale cooling and star formation in these group-centered galaxies. In NGC 5044 we observe interstellar (presumably PAH) emission at 8 microns out to about 5 kpc. Both NGC 5044 and 4636 have extended 70 microns emission from cold dust exceeding that expected from stellar mass loss. The sputtering lifetime of this extended dust in the ~1keV interstellar gas, ~10^7 yrs, establishes the time when the dust first entered the hot gas. Evidently the extended dust originated in dusty disks or clouds, commonly observed in elliptical galaxy cores, that were disrupted, heated and buoyantly transported outward. The surviving central dust in NGC 5044 and 4636 has been disrupted into many small filaments. It is remarkable that the asymmetrically extended 8 micron emission in NGC 5044 is spatially coincident with Halpha+[NII] emission from warm gas. A calculation shows that dust-assisted cooling in buoyant hot gas moving out from the galactic core can cool within a few kpc in about ~10^7 yrs, explaining the optical line emission observed. The X-ray images of both galaxies are disturbed. All timescales for transient activity - restoration of equilibrium and buoyant transport in the hot gas, dynamics of surviving dust fragments, and dust sputtering - are consistent with a central release of feedback energy in both galaxies about 10^7 yrs ago.

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