The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS): SOFIA detects spatially-resolved [CII] emission in the luminous AGN HE0433-1028

TL;DR

This study presents the first spatially-resolved [CII] emission observations of a nearby luminous AGN using SOFIA, revealing that [CII] emission largely traces extended star formation with some additional flux.

Contribution

It demonstrates the feasibility of collecting spatially-resolved optical-FIR datasets for nearby AGNs using SOFIA and compares [CII] emission with Hα star formation tracers.

Findings

[CII] emission matches extended star formation regions

Some additional [CII] flux is present beyond star formation areas

Feasibility of spatially-resolved optical-FIR observations with SOFIA is confirmed

Abstract

We report spatially-resolved [CII]$\lambda 158$ $\mu$m observations of HE 0433-1028, which is the first detection of a nearby luminous AGN (redshift 0.0355) with FIFI-LS onboard the airborne observatory SOFIA. We compare the spatially-resolved star formation tracers [CII], as provided by our SOFIA observations, and H$\alpha$ from MUSE optical integral-field spectroscopy. We find that the [CII] emission is mainly matching the extended star formation as traced by the extinction-corrected H$\alpha$ line emission but some additional flux is present. While a larger sample is needed to statistically confirm our findings and investigate possible dependencies on AGN luminosity and star formation rate, our study underlines the necessity of collecting a spatially-resolved optical-FIR dataset for nearby AGNs, and shows that it is technically feasible to collect such datasets with FIFI-LS onboard SOFIA.