13th of January 2015 |
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2014 Science Highlights |
What triggers
a radio AGN? The intriguing case of PKS B1718-649 |
Maccagni et al. (2014) present new Australia
Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of the young radio galaxy PKS
B1718-649. They study the morphology and the kinematics of the neutral hydrogen
(HI) disk and focus on analyzing the cold gas in relation to the triggering of
the nuclear activity. The different kinematical properties of two distinct HI
absorption lines suggest that PKS B1718-649 may belong to a family of young
low-excitation radio AGN where, rather than through a gas-rich merger, the
active nuclei (AGN) are triggered by local mechanisms such as accretion of
small gas clouds. |