Jet Feedback on the Interstellar Medium of the Radio Galaxy 3C 293
Abstract
We present a 70 ks Chandra observation of the radio galaxy 3C 293. This galaxy belongs to the class of molecular hydrogen emission galaxies (MOHEGs) that have very luminous emission from warm molecular hydrogen. In the case of radio galaxies, the molecular gas appears to be heated by jet-driven ISM turbulence. 3C 293 contains 3.7 x 10^9 solar masses of shock-heated, 100 K molecular hydrogen in an extended 10 kpc scale region. With Chandra, we observe emission from the jets both within the host galaxy and outside of the galaxy, along the 100 kpc radio jets. Some of the soft X-rays are coincident with the radio hotspots, but one X-ray emitting feature is anti-coincident with the radio emission. We model the X-ray spectra of the nucleus, the inner jets, and the X-ray features along the extended radio jets. Both the nucleus and the inner jets show evidence of 10^7 K shock-heated gas. The kinetic power of the jets is more than sufficient to heat the X-ray emitting gas, which serves as a reservoir of thermal and turbulent energy to maintain the molecular hydrogen emission over a time scale of 10^7 years.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #224
- Pub Date:
- June 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22441004L