Bent Radio Jets Reveal a Stripped Interstellar Medium in NGC 1272

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of bent radio jets in NGC 1272, indicating significant stripping of its interstellar medium by intracluster gas, with implications for jet pressure estimates.

Contribution

It reveals how ram pressure affects galaxy interstellar media and challenges standard equipartition assumptions in jet pressure calculations.

Findings

Jets are bent with a radius of curvature ~2 kpc.

Interstellar medium has been significantly stripped by intracluster gas.

Jet pressure estimates are underestimated by a factor of ~30 under standard assumptions.

Abstract

We report the discovery of bent double jets in the elliptical galaxy NGC 1272, a member of the Perseus cluster. The jets have a radius of curvature of ~2 kpc, much smaller than the galaxy half-light radius of ~11 kpc. This bending is likely a result of ram pressure, and indicates that the intracluster gas enters deep within the galaxy and that the interstellar medium of NGC 1272 has been significantly removed. X-ray observations of the surrounding intracluster medium allow us to constrain the pressure within the jet. We find that the standard assumptions of equipartition often used in interpreting other jets underestimate the pressure in the jets by a factor ~30.