Abstract
Massive outflows driven by active galactic nuclei are widely recognized
to have a key role in the evolution of galaxies, by heating the ambient
gas, expelling it from the nuclear regions, and thereby affecting the
star-formation histories of the galaxy bulges. It has been proposed that
the powerful jets of relativistic particles (such as electrons) launched
by some active nuclei can both accelerate and heat the molecular gas,
which often dominates the mass budgets of the outflows. Clear evidence
for this mechanism, in the form of detailed associations between the
molecular gas kinematics and features in the radio-emitting jets, has
however been lacking. Here we report that the warm molecular hydrogen
gas in the western radio lobe of the Seyfert galaxy IC 5063 is moving at
high velocities--up to about 600 kilometres per second--relative to the
galaxy disk. This suggests that the molecules have been accelerated by
fast shocks driven into the interstellar medium by the expanding radio
jets. These results demonstrate the general feasibility of accelerating
molecular outflows in fast shocks driven by active nuclei.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 440-443 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 511 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul-2014 |