Proyecto de Investigación: TARSIS, EL NUEVO INSTRUMENTO PARA EL TELESCOPIO DE 3.5 M DEL OBSERVATORIO DE CALAR ALTO
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PID2022-138621NB-I00
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Molecular gas stratification and disturbed kinematics in the Seyfert galaxy MCG-05-23-16 revealed by JWST and ALMA
(EDP Sciences, 2025-01-15) Esparza Arredondo, D. S.; Ramos Almeida, Cristina; Audibert, A.; Pereira Santaella, Miguel; García-Bernete, Ismael; García-Burillo, Santiago; Shimizu, T.; Davies, R.; Hermosa Muñoz, Laura; Alonso-Herrero, Almudena; Combes, Francoise; Speranza, G.; Zhang, Lulu; Campbell, Stephanie; Bellocchi, Enrica; Bunker, Andrew J.; Díaz Santos, T.; García Lorenzo, B.; González Martín, O.; Hicks, Erin K. S.; Labiano, Alvaro; Levenson, Nancy A.; Ricci, C.; Rosario, D.; Hönig, Sebastian; Packham, Christopher, C.; Stalevski, Marko; Fuller, L.; Izumi, T.; López Rodríguez, Enrique, E.; Rigopoulou, Dimitra; Rouan, D.; Ward, Martin; European Research Council (ERC); Comunidad de Madrid; Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España); Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT); Space Telescope Science Institute (US); Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation; Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile)
Understanding the processes that drive the morphology and kinematics of molecular gas in galaxies is crucial for comprehending star formation and, ultimately, galaxy evolution. Using data from the Galactic Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we study the behavior of the warm molecular gas at temperatures of hundreds of Kelvin and the cold molecular gas at tens of Kelvin in the galaxy MCG−05−23−16, which hosts an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of this spheroidal galaxy, classified in the optical as S0, show a dust lane resembling a nuclear spiral and a surrounding ring. These features are also detected in CO(2−1) and H2, and their morphologies and kinematics are consistent with rotation plus local inward gas motions along the kinematic minor axis in the presence of a nuclear bar. The H2 transitions 0-0 S(3), 0-0 S(4), and 0-0 S(5), which trace warmer and more excited gas, show more disrupted kinematics than 0-0 S(1) and 0-0 S(2), including clumps of high velocity dispersion (of up to ∼160 km s−1), in regions devoid of CO(2−1). The kinematics of one of these clumps, located ∼350 pc westward of the nucleus, are consistent with outflowing gas, possibly driven by localized star formation traced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission at 11.3 μm. Overall, we observe a stratification of the molecular gas, with the colder gas located in the nuclear spiral, ring, and connecting arms, and most of the warmer gas with a higher velocity dispersion filling the inter-arm space. The compact jet, approximately 200 pc in size, detected with Very Large Array (VLA) observations, does not appear to significantly affect the distribution and kinematics of the molecular gas, possibly due to its limited intersection with the molecular gas disk.
GATOS – XI. Excess dust heating in the narrow-line regions of nearby AGN revealed with JWST/MIRI
(Blackwell Publishing, 2026-01-26) Haidar, Houda; Rosario, David J.; García-Bernete, Ismael; Alonso-Herrero, Almudena; Audibert, Anelise; Campbell, Steph; Harrison, Chris; Costa, Tiago; Hermosa Muñoz, Laura; Combes, Françoise; Rigopoulou, Dimitra; Ricci, Claudio; Ramos Almeida, Cristina; Bellocchi, Enrica; Boorman, Peter; Bunker, Andrew; Davies, Richard; Delaney, Daniel; Díaz Santos, Tanio; Esposito, Federico; Fawcett, Victoria; Gandhi, Poshak; García-Burillo, Santiago; González-Martín, Omaira; Hicks, E.K.S.; Hönig, Sebastian F.; Labiano, Alvaro; Levenson, Nancy A.; Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique; Packham, Chris; Pereira-Santaella, Miguel; Riffel, Rogemar A.; Rodríguez Ardila, Alberto; Schneider, John; Thomas Shimizu, Taro; Stalevski, Marko; Villar Martín, Montserrat; Ward, Martin; Zhang, Lulu; Leeds, Gillian; Donnan, Fergus; European Commission (EC); Comunidad de Madrid; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT); Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia; Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI); European Research Council (ERC); UK Research and Innovation (UKRI); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES); Foundation of Rio Grande do Sul State for Research Support (FAPERGS)
We present James Webb Space Telescope/Mid-Infrared Instrument imaging of eight nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the GATOS (Galactic Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey) survey to investigate the physical conditions of extended dust in their narrow-line regions (NLRs). In four galaxies (ESO 428–G14, NGC 4388, NGC 3081, and NGC 5728), we detect spatially resolved dust structures extending ∼100–200 pc along the NLR. In these systems, we find a strong link between the morphology of the dust, the radio ejecta, and the coronal [Sivi] emission, implying that dust carries imprints of the processes shaping the NLR. Using spatially resolved spectral energy distributions, we show that dust in the NLR has systematically steeper slopes than star-forming clumps. This dust emits at temperatures in the range $150 \text{-} 220\, \rm K$, at a distance of ∼150 pc from the nucleus. Using simple models, we show that, even under optimistic assumptions of grain size and AGN luminosity, the excess mid-infrared emission cannot be explained by AGN illumination alone. We interpret this excess heating as in situ. We show that shocks with velocities v ∼ 200 - 400 km s in dense gas can close this gap, and in some cases even account for the total observed emission. This, combined with multiple lines of evidence for shocks in these regions, supports a scenario in which shocks not only coexist with dust but may be playing a key role in heating it. Our findings reveal shocks may be an important and previously overlooked driver of extended dust emission in the central hundreds of parsecs in AGN.
