The Spiral Host Galaxy of the Double Radio Source 0313-192

Abstract

We present new Hubble, Gemini-S, and Chandra observations of the radio galaxy 0313-192, which hosts a 350-kpc double source and jets, even though previous data have suggested that it is a spiral galaxy. We measure the bulge scale and luminosity, radial and vertical profiles of disk starlight, and consider the distributions of H II regions and absorbing dust. In each case, the HST data confirm its classification as an edge-on spiral galaxy, the only such system known to produce such an extended radio source of this kind. The Gemini near-IR images and Chandra spectral fit reveal a strongly obscured central AGN, seen through the entire ISM path length of the disk and showing X-ray evidence of additional absorption from warm or dense material close to the central object. We consider several possible mechanisms for producing such a rare combination of AGN and host properties, some combination of which may be at work. These include an unusually luminous bulge (suggesting a black hole of mass 0.5-0.9 billion solar masses), orientation of the jets near the pole of the gas-rich disk, and some evidence of a weak gravitational interaction which has warped the disk and could have enhanced fuelling of the central engine. An X-ray counterpart of the kiloparsec-scale radio jet emerges to the south; jet/counterjet limits in both radio and X-ray allow them to be symmetric if seen more than 15 degrees from the plane of the sky, still consistent with the jet axes being within ~30 degrees of the poles of the gas-rich galaxy disk. A linear or disklike emission-line structure is seen around thenucleus, inclined by ~20 degrees to the stellar disk but nearly perpendicular to the jets; this may represent the aftermath of a galaxy encounter, where gas is photoionized by the nuclear continuum.