AGN jets and a fanciful trio of black holes in the Abell 85 Brightest Cluster Galaxy
arXiv:2012.10774 · doi:10.1088/1538-3873/abc901
Abstract
A new radio map of the Abell 85 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) was obtained with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). With a resolution of 0.02", this radio image shows two kiloparsec-scale bipolar jets emanating from the active galactic nucleus of the Abell 85 BCG. The galaxy core appears as a single entity on the new radio map. It has been assumed that the Abell 85 BCG contained a binary black hole in its core. However, Chandra X-ray data and the new high-resolution radio map show no evidence that the Abell 85 BCG harbors a binary black hole. The assumption that this galaxy contains a binary black hole was based on the analysis of its optical surface brightness profile obtained under poor seeing conditions. We demonstrate how the well-known blurring effects of atmospheric seeing can mimic the effects of a binary supermassive black hole (SMBH). Likewise, SDSS J004150.75-091824.3 was postulated to be "a third" SMBH associated with the BCG. In the optical and X-rays, SDSS J004150.75-091824.3 is a point-like source located ~14" away from the nucleus of the Abell 85 BCG. A new spectrum of SDSS J004150.75-091824.3, obtained with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias, reveals that this source is a background quasar at a redshift of z=1.560+/-0.003 and not associated in any way with the Abell 85 cluster.
References in corpus (28)
- Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
- The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
- Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
- Discovery of a binary AGN in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 using Chandra
- Formation of Galactic Nuclei
- The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. Isophotal Analysis and the Structure of Early-Type Galaxies
- The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies
- A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
- Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: II. ~1,000,000 Quasars from Data Release Six
- The VLBA Calibrator Survey - VCS1
- Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: 100,000 z<3 Quasars from Data Release One
- Four Extreme Relic Radio Sources in Clusters of Galaxies
- Core depletion from coalescing supermassive black holes
- An XMM-Newton view of the cluster of galaxies Abell 85
- A Close Nuclear Black Hole Pair in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 3393
- A 40-billion solar mass black hole in the extreme core of Holm 15A, the central galaxy of Abell 85
- Chandra Observations of Abell 85: Merger of the South Subcluster
- The growth of the galaxy cluster Abell 85: mergers, shocks, stripping and seeding of clumping
- The diffuse, relic radio source in Abell 85: estimation of cluster scale magnetic field from inverse Compton X-rays
- An XMM-Newton view of the extended "filament" near the cluster of galaxies Abell 85
- The Brightest Cluster Galaxy in Abell 85: The Largest Core Known so far
- A VLBA search for binary black holes in active galactic nuclei with double-peaked optical emission line spectra
- Stellar Populations of BCGs, Close Companions and Intracluster Light in Abell 85, Abell 2457 and IIZw108
- Deep spectroscopy of nearby galaxy clusters: I. Spectroscopic luminosity function of Abell 85
- X-ray Observations of Complex Temperature Structure in the Cool-core cluster Abell 85
- Gemini Spectroscopy of Ultra-Compact Dwarfs in the Fossil Group NGC 1132
- Too big to be real? No depleted core in Holm 15A
- The Abell 85 BCG: a nucleated, core-less galaxy