The HST snapshot survey of the B2 sample of low luminosity radio-galaxies: a picture gallery

TL;DR

This paper presents high-resolution optical images of low luminosity radio galaxies from the B2 sample, revealing common features like dust, compact cores, and optical jets, and provides morphological analysis of these galaxies.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive high-resolution optical imaging survey of the B2 low luminosity radio galaxy sample, highlighting morphological features and potential optical jets.

Findings

Most host galaxies are luminous ellipticals.

Dust features are present in 58% of the galaxies.

Optical jets are detected in three objects.

Abstract

A Hubble Space Telescope snapshot survey of the B2 sample of low luminosity radio galaxies has, at present, produced V and I images of 41 objects. Together with 16 images of B2 sources taken from the HST archive, there are now high resolution optical data for 57 % of the sample. All host galaxies are luminous ellipticals, except one which is a spiral galaxy, while another one turns out to be a misidentification. We present an album of the images of the B2 radio galaxies observed so far, and give a brief description of the optical morphology of the galaxies. Dust features (in the form of disks, lanes or irregular patches) are seen in most of the galaxies of the sample, 58 %. Compact optical cores are also very common (18/57). A preliminary analysis has revealed the presence of an optical jet in three objects, indicating they can be detected in a sizeable percentage in these low luminosity radio sources. Brightness profiles of dust-free galaxies are well represented by a Nuker law and all shows the existence of a resolved shallow cusp.