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Session 11 - QSOs and Radio Galaxies.
Display session, Monday, June 08
Atlas Ballroom,
We present detailed HST/WFPC2 imaging of the complex network of emission-line filaments and blue continuum emission associated with the lobes of the radio source at the center of the nearby strong cooling-flow cluster Abell 2597. This object is a prototypical `blue-lobed' radio galaxy located in a cooling-flow cluster. We discuss ways in which the radio source is interacting directly with the ambient gas: the radio lobe to the north of the active nucleus is surrounded by a shell of line-emitting gas, while the radio jet to the south appears to be substantially deflected by a dense, cool cloud of gas. We derive detailed constraints on the physical properties of the gas, including its volume filling factor and ratio of ionized / neutral material, and consider various possibilities for its origin. The effect of the surrounding gas upon the evolution of the radio source is discussed, together with the overall role played by the radio source in the long-term energetics of the cooling-flow nebula. We also present detailed observations of a number of compact regions of blue continuum emission that appear to be indicative of recent star formation, and discuss their likely origin and evolutionary history in the context of the evolution of the radio source.
