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Observations of the neutral gas and dust in the radio galaxy 3C 305

2003; Oxford University Press; Volume: 338; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06075.x

1365-2966

N. Jackson, R. J. Beswick, A. Pedlar, G. H. J. Cole, W. B. Sparks, J. P. Leahy, D. J. Axon, A. J. Holloway,

Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena

We present MERLIN and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the central region of the nearby radio galaxy 3C 305 and use them to study the gas and dust in this object. The MERLIN observations are of neutral hydrogen (H i) absorption against the strong non-thermal 20 cm continuum seen towards the central 4 kpc of 3C 305. Our ∼0.2 arcsec (160 pc) resolution observations show that the H i absorption is highly localized against the south-western radio-emission with column densities ∼1.9 × 1021 cm−2. The absorption is broad (full width at half maximum, FWHM, of 145 ± 26 km s−1) and redshifted by 130 km s−1 relative to the systemic velocity. The HST images in multiple optical and infrared filters (430 nm, 702 nm, [O iii] 500.7 nm, [Fe ii] 1.64 μm and K-band polarization) are presented. Evidence is seen for coincidence of the [Fe ii] emission with the knot at the end of the radio jet, which is evidence for the presence of shocks.