The MURALES survey

We observed the FR II radio galaxy 3C 459 (z = 0.22) with the MUSE spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) as part of the MURALES project (a MUse RAdio Loud Emission line Snapshot survey). We detected diffuse nuclear emission and a filamentary ionized gas structure forming a one-sided, triangular-shaped region extending out to ∼80 kpc. The central emission line region is dominated by two compact knots of similar flux: the first (N1) cospatial with the radio core and the (N2) second located 1″.2 (5.3 kpc) to the SE. The two regions differ dramatically from the point of view of velocity (with an offset of ∼400 km s−1), line widths, and line ratios. This suggests that we are observing a dual AGN system formed by a radio loud AGN and type 2 QSO companion, which is the result of the recent merger that also produced its disturbed host morphology. The alternative possibility that N2 is just a bright emission line knot resulting from, for example, a jet-cloud interaction, is disfavored because of (1) the presence of a high ionization bicone whose apex is located at N2; (2) the observed narrow line widths; (3) its line luminosity (∼1042 erg s−1) typical of luminous QSOs; and (4) its location, which is offset from the jet path. The putative secondary AGN must be highly obscured, since we do not detect any emission in the Chandra and infrared Hubble Space Telescope images.

Kinematics and dynamics of galactic Planetary Nebulae

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) are transient objects of considerable astrophysical interest: there are thought to descend from low and intermediate initial mass stars and therefore cover a large range of ages. On the other hand there are easily identified thanks to their bright emission-line spectra. In view of this it is perhaps surprising that little use has been made of PNe for kinematical studies of the Milky Way.

Spectroscopy of new Planetary Nebulae close to the galactic center

Planetary Nebulae (PN) are bright emission line objects, observable at large distances throughout the Galaxy. They serve as probes of abundance gradients and chemical enrichment history of the ISM.