Teacup in the news!
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by
JeanTate
Well, a new paper (astro-ph preprint) about it, in today's batch.
Oldbies will recall that "the Teacup" (zsp 0.085 SDSS J143029.88+133912.0) was one of the most interesting voorwerp-like (voorwerpjies?) found in the citizen science (and citizen scientists) powered search for them, back in the days of the original Galaxy Zoo (no-longer-active waveney was, if I recall correctly, the maestro).
The abstract of "A 100 kpc nebula associated with the "Teacup" fading quasar" (Villar Martin+ 2017, link is to abstract):
We report the discovery of a ~100 kpc ionized nebula associated with the radio quiet type 2 quasar (QSO2) nicknamed the "Teacup" (z=0.085). The giant nebula is among the largest known around active galaxies at any z. We propose that it is part of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the QSO2 host, which has been populated with tidal debris by galactic interactions. This rich gaseous medium has been rendered visible due to the illumination by the powerful active nucleus (AGN). Subsolar abundances (~0.5Z(sun)) are tentatively favored by AGN photoionization models. We also report the detection of coronal emission (Fe+6) from the NE bubble, at ~9 kpc from the AGN. The detection of coronal lines at such large distances from the AGN and the [NII]/Halpha, [SII]/Halpha, [OI]/Halpha optical emission line ratios of the giant nebula are consistent with the fading quasar scenario proposed by Gagne et al. (2014). The fading rate appears to have been faster in the last ~46,000 yr. Deep wide field integral field spectroscopy of giant nebulae around powerful AGN such as the "Teacup's" with instruments such as MUSE on VLT opens up a way to detect and study the elusive material from the CGM around massive active galaxies thanks to the illumination by the luminous AGN.
Sadly, we get no direct mention for the discovery; rather, the text merely says ("Keel et al. 2012" is where you'll find our role acknowledged):
The “Teacup” (SDSS J143029.88+133912.0 at z =0.085) is a radio quiet type 2 quasar (QSO2), whose nickname comes from the peculiar morphology of the extended ionized gas. It shows a loop-shaped emission line structure reminiscent of a “handle” extending up to ∼12 kpc NE of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) (Keel et al. 2012, Gagne et al. 2014, Ramos Almeida et al. 2017).
I wonder, do Montserrat Villar Martin, Antonio Cabrera Lavers, Andrew Humphrey, Marckelson Silva, Cristina Ramos Almeida, Javier Piqueras, and Bjorn Emonts even know of the existence of Galaxy Zoo, let alone what we do? (FWIW, I'm pretty sure Bjorn Emonts does ...)
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