Bibcode
Battaner, E.; Mediavilla, E.; Guijarro, A.; Arribas, S.; Florido, E.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.401, p.67-71 (2003)
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4
2003
Journal
Citations
7
Refereed citations
7
Description
New Integral Field Spectroscopy of the central region of NGC 7331
reveals strong Hα emission in the well-known CO and HI ring of
NGC 7331. The [NII]/Hα ratio indicates that a large scale stellar
formation process is taken place at the ring in agreement with previous
hypothesis about the exhaustion of gas in the inner to the ring region.
The dynamics of stars and gas are not coupled. There is a ring of
peculiar velocities in the ionized gas velocity map. These peculiar
velocities can be well interpreted by the presence of an axisymmetric
inflow of 40 km s-1 at the inner boundary of the large-scale
gaseous ring. We infer an inwards total flux of 1.6 Msun
yr-1. This value is typical of the accretion rates in
hypothetical large nuclear black holes. Despite the large differences in
the scales of the nucleus and the gas ring of NGC 7331, we suggest that
this inwards flux is feeding the nucleus.