Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Dusty Filaments in Hercules A: Evidence for Entrainment

TL;DR

This study uses HST imaging to reveal complex dusty filaments in Hercules A, likely stripped from a companion galaxy, and discusses their alignment with jets and implications for the galaxy's activity history.

Contribution

First detailed HST imaging analysis of dusty filaments in Hercules A, linking filament morphology to jet activity and galaxy interactions.

Findings

Dusty filaments are more complex and extended than previously observed.

Filaments are aligned with the base of the jets on both sides.

Different filament morphologies suggest entrainment in a boundary layer.

Abstract

We present U, V, and I-band images of the host galaxy of Hercules A (3C 348) obtained with HST/WFC3/UVIS. We find a network of dusty filaments which are more complex and extended than seen in earlier HST observations. The filaments are associated with a faint blue continuum light (possibly from young stars) and faint H-alpha emission. It seems likely that the cold gas and dust has been stripped from a companion galaxy now seen as a secondary nucleus. There are dusty filaments aligned with the base of the jets on both eastern and western sides of the galaxy. The morphology of the filaments is different on the two sides - the western filaments are fairly straight, while the eastern filaments are mainly in two loop-like structures. We suggest that despite the difference in morphologies, both sets of filaments have been entrained in a slow moving boundary layer outside the relativistic flow. As suggested by Fabian et al. (2008), magnetic fields in the filaments may stabilize them against disruption. We consider a speculative scenario to explain the relation between the radio source and the shock and cavities in the hot ICM seen in the Chandra data (Nulsen et al. 2005). We suggest the radio source originally (~60 Myr ago) propagated along a position angle of ~35 degrees where it created the shock and cavities. The radio source axis changed to its current orientation (~100 degrees) possibly due to a supermassive black hole merger and began its current epoch of activity about 20 Myr ago.