The MURALES survey

V. Jet-induced star formation in 3C 277.3 (Coma A)

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Via Osservatorio 20, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
e-mail: alessandro.capetti@inaf.it
² Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S6 3TG, UK
³ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, Via G. Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁵ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
⁶ Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
⁷ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁸ INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
¹⁰ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
¹¹ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
¹² University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
¹³ SETI Institute, 189 N. Bernado Ave, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
¹⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile

Received: 5 August 2021
Accepted: 28 October 2021

Abstract

We present observations obtained with the VLT/MUSE optical integral field spectrograph of the radio source 3C 277.3, located at a redshift of 0.085 and associated with the galaxy Coma A. An emission line region fully enshrouds the double-lobed radio source, which is ∼60 kpc × 90 kpc in size. Based on the emission line ratios, we identified five compact knots in which the gas ionization is powered by young stars located as far as ∼60 kpc from the host. The emission line filaments surrounding the radio emission are compatible with ionization from fast shocks (with a velocity of 350−500 km s⁻¹), but a contribution from star formation occurring at the edges of the radio source is likely. Coma A might be a unique example in the local Universe in which the expanding outflow triggers star formation throughout the whole radio source.