Science Highlight: An AGN jet pushing around interstellar gas

Using Cycle 6 ALMA observations of the far-infrared bright radio galaxy PKS0023-26, Morganti et al. study the impact of the jet that is driven by the black hole powering the Active Galactic Nucleus on the interstellar gas. The 0.13-0.4” resolution images of 1.7 mm continuum and 12CO(2-1) emission reveal that the jet only strongly perturbs the inner sub-kpc regions. On scales of a few kpc, the action is limited to a more gentle “pushing aside” of the gas. Currently, this galaxy is forming stars at a clip pace of 25 M_sun/year; in another few x 10⁷ year, this rate may drop as the jet and lobes have expanded across the galaxy. This works shows that the feedback of the AGN on galaxy ISM and star formation acts on long time scales. The results will be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and are already available on arXiv.