Is Centaurus A special? A neutral hydrogen perspective
arXiv:0910.4238 · doi:10.1071/AS09065
Abstract
Due to the proximity, the neutral hydrogen belonging to Centaurus A can be observed at high resolution with good sensitivity. This allows to study the morphology and kinematics in detail in order to understand the evolution of this radio-loud source (e.g. merger history, AGN activity). At the same time, it is important to compare the results to other sources of the same class (i.e. early-type galaxies in general and radio galaxies in particular) to see how Centaurus A fits into the global picture of early-type/radio galaxy evolution. The amount of HI, the morphology of a warped disk with HI clouds surrounding the disk and the regular kinematics of the inner part of the HI disk are not unusual for early-type galaxies. The growing evidence that mergers are not necessarily responsible for AGN activity fits with the observational result that the recent merger event in Centaurus A is not connected to the current phase of activity. Based on these results, we conclude that Centaurus A has typical neutral hydrogen properties for an early-type and radio galaxy and it can therefore - from an HI perspective - be seen as a typical example of its class.
submitted to PASA; 7 pages, 4 figures
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Cited by in corpus (5)
- The radio continuum structure of Centaurus A at 1.4 GHz
- The many faces of the gas in Centaurus A (NGC5128)
- The Warped Disk of Centaurus A from a radius of 2 to 6500 pc
- ALMA Observations of the Physical and Chemical Conditions in Centaurus A
- 3.3 μm PAH observations of the central kiloparsecs of Centaurus A