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W. van Breugel, S. Croft (UC LLNL), W. de Vries (UC Davis), J. H. van Gorkom (Columbia), R. Morganti, T. Osterloo (ASTRON, Netherlands), M. Dopita (ANU, Mt. Stromlo, Australia)
We present VLA neutral hydrogen (HI) observations which show that ``Minkowski's Object", a peculiar starburst system, is due to the interaction of a low luminosity (FR-I type) radio jet with the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the cluster of galaxies A194. The transverse size and bimodal structure of the HI cloud, straddling the jet; its location downstream from the star forming region; and kinematic evidence for gas entrainment all are in agreement with previous numerical simulations (Fragile et al 2004) which concluded that FR-I type jets can trigger star formation by driving radiative shocks into the moderately dense, warm gas that is typical of central galaxy cluster regions. We compare the timescales for HI formation with the age of the starburst derived from recent Keck, Lick and HST spectroscopic and imaging data (see poster by Croft et al), which allows us to put constraints on the physical conditions in the radio jet (speed) and its ambient medium (density).
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.