THE QUASAR/GALAXY PAIR PKS 1327-206/ESO 1327-2041: ABSORPTION ASSOCIATED WITH A RECENT GALAXY MERGER
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, 389 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)
We present HST/WFPC2 broadband and ground-based H{alpha} images, H I 21 cm emission maps, and low-resolution optical spectra of the nearby galaxy ESO 1327-2041, which is located 38'' (14 h{sup -1}{sub 70} kpc in projection) west of the quasar PKS 1327-206. Our Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images reveal that ESO 1327-2041 has a complex optical morphology, including an extended spiral arm that was previously classified as a polar ring. Our optical spectra show H{alpha} emission from several H II regions in this arm located {approx}5'' from the quasar position ({approx}2 h{sup -1}{sub 70} kpc in projection) and our ground-based H{alpha} images reveal the presence of several additional H II regions in an inclined disk near the galaxy's center. Absorption associated with ESO 1327-2041 is found in H I 21 cm, optical, and near-UV spectra of PKS 1327-206. We find two absorption components at cz{sub abs} = 5255 and 5510 km s{sup -1} in the H I 21 cm absorption spectrum, which match the velocities of previously discovered metal-line components. We attribute the 5510 km s{sup -1} absorber to disk gas in the extended spiral arm and the 5255 km s{sup -1} absorber to high-velocity gas that has been tidally stripped from the disk of ESO 1327-2041. The complexity of the galaxy/absorber relationships for these very nearby H I 21 cm absorbers suggests that the standard view of high-redshift damped Ly{alpha} absorbers is oversimplified in many cases.
- OSTI ID:
- 21583228
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 141, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/141/2/66; ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Discovery of low-redshift, neutral hydrogen absorption in the radio spectrum of PKS 2020-370
PROBING THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM-GALAXY CONNECTION AT z < 0.5. I. A GALAXY SURVEY IN QSO FIELDS AND A GALAXY-ABSORBER CROSS-CORRELATION STUDY ,