JWST Discovery of a Very Fast Biconical Outflow of Warm Molecular Gas in the Nearby Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxy F08572+3915 NW
Abstract
We present new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium-Resolution Spectrometer (MRS) observations of the nearby ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) F08572+3915 NW. These integral field spectroscopic (IFS) data reveal a kpc-scale warm-molecular rotating disk and biconical outflow traced by the H2 = 0-0 S(1), S(2), S(3), and S(5) rotational transitions. The outflow maintains a relatively constant median (maximum) projected velocity of 1100 km s-1 (3000 km s-1) out to 1.4 kpc from the nucleus. The outflowing H2 material is slightly warmer (640 - 700 K) than the rotating disk material (460 - 520 K), perhaps due to shock heating in the highly turbulent outflowing material. This outflow shares the same kinematics and orientation as the sub-kpc scale warm-H2 outflow traced by the ro-vibrational H2 lines in Keck AO near-infrared IFS data. However, this warm-H2 outflow is significantly faster than the sub-kpc scale cold-molecular outflow derived from multi-transition far-infrared OH observations with Herschel and the kpc-scale cold-molecular outflow mapped by mm-wave interferometric CO 1-0 observations with IRAM-PdBI and NOEMA. The new JWST data bolster the scenario where the buried quasar in this ULIRG is excavating the dust screen, accelerating perhaps as much as 60\% of the dusty warm-molecular material to velocities beyond the escape velocity, and thus influencing the evolution of the host galaxy.
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