Peculiar Radio Galaxies in the COSMOS Field

• A wide angle tail radio galaxy in the COSMOS field:
  Evidence for cluster formation (SmolčIć et al., 2007, ApJS, 172, 295)
  
  
  
  

  Color composite image showing a wide angle tail radio galaxy, CWAT-01, and its environment discovered in the COSMOS field. The 20 cm continuum emission from its radio lobes (which is mainly due to synchrotron radiation of relativistic electrons) was observed with the VLA and is shown in white (bottom left part of the image). The B (blue), V (green) and i+ (red) band images, taken with the Subaru telescope, are shown in the background. These images show light observed in optical wavelengths which comes from foreground stars and stars in distant galaxies. Some of theses galaxies belong to the host cluster of CWAT-01. The X-ray emission of the galaxy clusters is shown in grey to red color gradients. It arises from bremsstrahlung of thermal electrons in the intra-cluster medium and was taken with the XMM-Newton satellite.
  
  Wide-angle tail galaxies are a special class of radio galaxies, usually found in galaxy clusters, whose radio jets are bent into a wide "C" shape. Their morphology suggests that they strongly interact with their external environment. Such galaxies are often found in merging cluster systems. The wide angle tail galaxy CWAT-01 is part of a very complex galaxy cluster assembly consisting of at least four X-ray luminous clusters at a redshift of z=0.2. This cluster system is presumably in the process of forming a large cluster having a minimum mass of about 20% of the Coma cluster mass. Details about this radio galaxy and cluster assembly can be found in Smolčić et al. 2007 (ApJS, 172, 295).