The detection of a large-scale ionised outflow in the local CON galaxy Zw049.057

¹ Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, 439 92 Onsala, Sweden
² National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
³ Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
⁴ Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
⁵ The Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique (IRAM), Domaine Universitaire, 38406 Saint Martin d’Hères, France
⁶ Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, Madison, WI 53703, USA
⁷ Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
⁸ Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
¹⁰ Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, Collège de France, CNRS, PSL University, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
¹¹ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
¹² Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, E-28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
¹³ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
¹⁴ Astronomy Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203 Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
¹⁵ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
¹⁶ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
¹⁷ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475, USA
¹⁸ Department of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
¹⁹ Nu cleo de Astronom ía de la Facultad de Ingenier ía, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ej ercito Libertador 441, Santiago 22, Chile
²⁰ Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
²¹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK

^★ Corresponding author: wethers@chalmers.se

Received: 15 November 2024
Accepted: 5 September 2025

Abstract

Aims. Current co-evolutionary models of galaxies and their supermassive black holes (SMBHs) almost unanimously predict the existence of a heavily dust-obscured nuclear phase, critical in growing the SMBH and providing feedback to the host galaxy. However, this phase is poorly understood. Compact obscured nuclei (CONs) are relatively common in local (ultra-)luminous infrared galaxies and are the most obscured nuclei known to date, offering the opportunity to study the effects of such a dust-obscured phase on the galaxy. This work presents a case study of the local CON Zw049.057; we study the large-scale features of the galaxy and their connection to the ongoing activity of the central CON.

Methods. We present new, targeted MUSE observations of the local CON galaxy Zw049.057, which is known to host multiple outflow features within its central few hundred parsecs. By mapping the kinematics of Hα, we analysed the large-scale features of the galaxy.

Results. For the first time, we identify a kiloparsec-scale ionised outflow in Zw049.057, traced by Hα emission. Kinematics reveal the outflow to be blueshifted and orientated to the foreground of the stellar disk. The ionisation of this outflow is consistent with shock-heating, which may be related to the presence of a previously identified radio jet in the galaxy.