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Issue A&A Volume 376, Number 2, September II 2001 Page(s) 402 - 412 Section Extragalactic astronomy DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20011003

A&A 376, 402-412 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011003

Centaurus A: Molecular gas shells or large-scale outflow?

S. J. Curran<sup>1, 2, 3

1</sup>  Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, 439 92 Onsala, Sweden
²  School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
³  European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile

(Received 2 May 2001 / Accepted 6 July 2001 )

Abstract
In order to test if the molecular "shells" observed by Charmandaris et al. (2000) could be due to a molecular outflow, we have mapped CO in and along the jet axis of Centaurus A. Where our map coincides with their observed positions, like them, we obtain detections with a similar antenna temperature for CO , although both transitions appear to be somewhat wider in velocity dispersion than theirs. As well as these, we have several tentative detections at distances of 5 kpc from the nucleus, and although these results are of too poor quality in order to verify or refute the shell model in favour of a molecular outflow, our observations of the inner kpc do suggest that at least a small-scale outflow is a possibility. Whether this would be a component of a larger-scale outflow or exists in conjunction with the molecular gas shells will have to wait for a much more extensive mapping of the large-scale gas distribution in Centaurus A, for which these and the results of Charmandaris et al. (2000) will hopefully provide sufficient motivation.

Key words: galaxies: active -- galaxies: jets -- galaxies: Seyfert -- galaxies: individual: Centaurus A -- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics -- galaxies: structure

SIMBAD Objects in preparation

© ESO 2001

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