Issue |
A&A
Volume 522, November 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A89 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201014611 | |
Published online | 05 November 2010 |
Accretion and nuclear activity in Virgo early-type galaxies⋆
1
Dipartimento di Fisica Università di Trieste,
piazzale Europa 1,
34127
Trieste,
Italy
e-mail: vattakunnel@oats.inaf.it
2
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, via Osservatorio 20,
10025
Pino Torinese,
Italy
e-mail: trussoni@oato.inaf.it; capetti@oato.inaf.it; baldi@oato.inaf.it
3
Università di Torino, via P. Giuria 1, 10125
Torino,
Italy
Received: 31 March 2010
Accepted: 29 June 2010
We use Chandra observations to estimate the accretion rate of hot gas onto the central supermassive black hole in four giant (of stellar mass M∗ ~ 1011 − 1012 M⊙) early-type galaxies located in the Virgo cluster. They are characterized by an extremely low radio luminosity, in the range L ≲ 3 × 1025 − 1027 ergs-1Hz-1. We find that, accordingly, accretion in these objects occurs at an extremely low rate, 0.2 − 3.7 × 10-3 M⊙ yr-1, and that they smoothly extend the relation accretion-jet power found for more powerful radio-galaxies. This confirms the dominant role of hot gas and of the galactic coronae in powering radio-loud active galactic nuclei across ~ 4 orders of magnitude in luminosity. A suggestive trend between jet power and location within the cluster also emerges.
Key words: galaxies: active / galaxies: jets / galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD / galaxies: ISM
Appendix is only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
© ESO, 2010
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