TY - JOUR
T1 - Crepuscular rays from the highly inclined active galactic nucleus in IC 5063
AU - Peter Maksym, W.
AU - Schmidt, Judy
AU - Keel, William C.
AU - Fabbiano, Giuseppina
AU - Fischer, Travis C.
AU - Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
AU - Barth, Aaron J.
AU - Elvis, Martin
AU - Oosterloo, Tom
AU - Ho, Luis C.
AU - Kim, Minjin
AU - Hwang, Hyunmo
AU - Mayer, Evan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/10/10
Y1 - 2020/10/10
N2 - On Earth near sunset, the Sun may cast “crepuscular rays” such that clouds near the horizon obscure the origin of light scattered in bright rays. In principle, active galactic nuclei (AGN) should be able to produce similar effects. Using new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared and optical observations, we show that the active galaxy IC 5063 contains broad radial rays extending to ≳11 kpc from the nucleus. We argue that the bright rays may arise from dusty scattering of continuum emission from the active nucleus, while the dark rays are due to shadowing near the nucleus, possibly by a warped torus. We also consider alternative AGN-related and stellar origins for the extended light.
AB - On Earth near sunset, the Sun may cast “crepuscular rays” such that clouds near the horizon obscure the origin of light scattered in bright rays. In principle, active galactic nuclei (AGN) should be able to produce similar effects. Using new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared and optical observations, we show that the active galaxy IC 5063 contains broad radial rays extending to ≳11 kpc from the nucleus. We argue that the bright rays may arise from dusty scattering of continuum emission from the active nucleus, while the dark rays are due to shadowing near the nucleus, possibly by a warped torus. We also consider alternative AGN-related and stellar origins for the extended light.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093080950&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/abb9b6
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/abb9b6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85093080950
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 902
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L18
ER -