Abstract
The effects of nuclear activity in galaxies are known to extend well beyond the immediate nuclear environment. This is particularly true in some quasars and the active ellipticals or radio galaxies where the influence of the central engine can be apparent on scales of up to several megaparsecs. In addition to the large-scale regions of non-thermal radio emission there are sometimes sources of optical, both line and continuum, emission which appear to be associated in some way with the transport of energy from the nucleus to the larger structures. This letter reports the discovery of a bright cloud of gas at a projected distance of 8 kpc (H0 = 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 used throughout) and approximately along the radio axis of the radio galaxy PKS 2152–69. It is shown to radiate a nebular spectrum including lines from the highly ionized species He+, Ca4+, Fe6+ and Fe9+. A compact source of optical continuum radiation within the cloud has an energy distribution which is considerably bluer than the residual light from the underlying galaxy.
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Tadhunter, C., Fosbury, R., Binette, L. et al. Detached nuclear-like activity in the radio galaxy PKS 2152–69. Nature 325, 504–507 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325504a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/325504a0
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