Chandra HRC and HST observations of NGC6240: resolving the AGN and Starburst

Abstract

We present high spatial resolution X-ray Chandra HRC and HST WFPC2 Halpha observations of the prototypical infrared luminous galaxy NGC6240. The central region of this system shows a remarkably complex morphology, with filaments and loops observed in the optical and X-rays. The total X-ray luminosity is dominated by the extended emission. Both nuclei are clearly detected in the HRC image and both appear to be extended. The energetics of the nuclei imply that the southern nucleus is the more plausible counterpart to the obscured AGN. The overall SED of the galaxy is in good agreement with a blend of starburst and AGN components which have similar bolometric luminosities, L_bol ~ 5e45 ergs/s, with the starburst dominating the observed continuum in the near-IR (K-band), optical and soft X-ray bands.

Minor changes made, references added. 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (4)

• Chandra observations of NGC 253. II: On the origin of diffuse X-ray emission in the halos of starburst galaxies
• Chandra Observations of the Luminous IR Galaxy NGC3256
• A Chandra X-ray Study of NGC 1068 - I. Observations of Extended Emission
• A hard X-ray constraint on the presence of an AGN in the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy Arp220

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