The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows?
Gas flows between galaxies and the circumgalactic medium play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. When ionized by a quasar, these gas flows can be directly traced as giant nebulae. We present a study of a giant nebula around a radio-loud quasar, 3C 57 at z ≈ 0.672. Observations from MUSE reveal tha...
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2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc1bf |
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| author | Zhuoqi (Will) Liu Sean D. Johnson Jennifer I-Hsiu Li Benoît Epinat Gwen C. Rudie Ana Monreal-Ibero Sebastiano Cantalupo Zhijie Qu Mandy C. Chen Wolfram Kollatschny Sowgat Muzahid Fakhri S. Zahedy Elise Kesler Nishant Mishra |
| author_facet | Zhuoqi (Will) Liu Sean D. Johnson Jennifer I-Hsiu Li Benoît Epinat Gwen C. Rudie Ana Monreal-Ibero Sebastiano Cantalupo Zhijie Qu Mandy C. Chen Wolfram Kollatschny Sowgat Muzahid Fakhri S. Zahedy Elise Kesler Nishant Mishra |
| author_sort | Zhuoqi (Will) Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Gas flows between galaxies and the circumgalactic medium play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. When ionized by a quasar, these gas flows can be directly traced as giant nebulae. We present a study of a giant nebula around a radio-loud quasar, 3C 57 at z ≈ 0.672. Observations from MUSE reveal that the nebula is elongated with a major axis of 70 kpc and a minor axis of 40 kpc. The nebula displays an approximately symmetric blueshifted–redshifted pattern along the major axis and multicomponent emission features in its [O II ] and [O III ] profiles. The morphology and kinematics can be explained as rotating gas or biconical outflow, both of which qualitatively reproduce the observed position–velocity diagram. The 3C 57 nebula is significantly more kinematically disturbed, with W _80 (the line width encompassing 80% of the flux) of approximately 300–400 km s ^−1 , compared to H i gas in local early-type galaxies, which typically shows W _80 ≈ 50 km s ^−1 . This velocity dispersion is comparable to the gas in cool-core clusters despite originating in a group 100 times less massive. For biconical outflow models, the inferred 10°–20° inclination angle is in tension with the unobscured nature of the quasar, as the dusty torus is expected to be perpendicular to the outflow. Neither a quiescent rotating gas origin nor an biconical outflow fully reproduces the observed kinematics and morphology of the 3C 57 nebula, suggesting a more intricate origin likely involving both rotation and active galactic nuclei feedback. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-41e2b894a38f47febbeeeb5428b0e9e7 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-41e2b894a38f47febbeeeb5428b0e9e72025-08-20T02:10:42ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-01984214010.3847/1538-4357/adc1bfThe Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows?Zhuoqi (Will) Liu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2662-9363Sean D. Johnson1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9487-8583Jennifer I-Hsiu Li2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0311-2812Benoît Epinat3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2470-5756Gwen C. Rudie4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8459-5413Ana Monreal-Ibero5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6455-2491Sebastiano Cantalupo6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5804-1428Zhijie Qu7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2941-646XMandy C. Chen8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8739-3163Wolfram Kollatschny9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0417-1494Sowgat Muzahid10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3938-8762Fakhri S. Zahedy11https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7869-2551Elise Kesler12https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6846-9399Nishant Mishra13https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9141-9792Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; zql@umich.eduDepartment of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; zql@umich.eduCenter for AstroPhysical Surveys, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Michigan Institute for Data Science, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USAAix-Marseille Univ , CNRS, CNES, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), Marseille, France; Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope , 65-1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USAThe Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USALeiden Observatory, Leiden University , PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The NetherlandsDepartment of Physics, University of Milan Bicocca , Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, ItalyDepartment of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The University of Chicago , 5640 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USAThe Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA; Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics , California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USAInstitut für Astrophysik und Geophysik, Universität Göttingen , Friedrich-Hund Platz 1, D-37077 Göttingen, GermanyInter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) , Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, IndiaThe Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA; Department of Physics, University of North Texas , Denton, TX 76201, USADepartment of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; zql@umich.eduDepartment of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ; zql@umich.eduGas flows between galaxies and the circumgalactic medium play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. When ionized by a quasar, these gas flows can be directly traced as giant nebulae. We present a study of a giant nebula around a radio-loud quasar, 3C 57 at z ≈ 0.672. Observations from MUSE reveal that the nebula is elongated with a major axis of 70 kpc and a minor axis of 40 kpc. The nebula displays an approximately symmetric blueshifted–redshifted pattern along the major axis and multicomponent emission features in its [O II ] and [O III ] profiles. The morphology and kinematics can be explained as rotating gas or biconical outflow, both of which qualitatively reproduce the observed position–velocity diagram. The 3C 57 nebula is significantly more kinematically disturbed, with W _80 (the line width encompassing 80% of the flux) of approximately 300–400 km s ^−1 , compared to H i gas in local early-type galaxies, which typically shows W _80 ≈ 50 km s ^−1 . This velocity dispersion is comparable to the gas in cool-core clusters despite originating in a group 100 times less massive. For biconical outflow models, the inferred 10°–20° inclination angle is in tension with the unobscured nature of the quasar, as the dusty torus is expected to be perpendicular to the outflow. Neither a quiescent rotating gas origin nor an biconical outflow fully reproduces the observed kinematics and morphology of the 3C 57 nebula, suggesting a more intricate origin likely involving both rotation and active galactic nuclei feedback.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc1bfCircumgalactic mediumCool intergalactic mediumQuasars |
| spellingShingle | Zhuoqi (Will) Liu Sean D. Johnson Jennifer I-Hsiu Li Benoît Epinat Gwen C. Rudie Ana Monreal-Ibero Sebastiano Cantalupo Zhijie Qu Mandy C. Chen Wolfram Kollatschny Sowgat Muzahid Fakhri S. Zahedy Elise Kesler Nishant Mishra The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? The Astrophysical Journal Circumgalactic medium Cool intergalactic medium Quasars |
| title | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? |
| title_full | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? |
| title_fullStr | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? |
| title_short | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula around a Radio-loud Quasar 3C 57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? |
| title_sort | morphology and kinematics of a giant symmetric nebula around a radio loud quasar 3c 57 extended rotating gas or biconical outflows |
| topic | Circumgalactic medium Cool intergalactic medium Quasars |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc1bf |
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