MIRACLE I.: Unveiling the Multi-Phase, Multi-Scale physical properties of the Active Galaxy NGC 424 with MIRI, MUSE, and ALMA
C. Marconcini, A. Feltre, I. Lamperti, M. Ceci, A. Marconi, L. Ulivi, F. Mannucci, G. Cresci, F. Belfiore, E. Bertola, S. Carniani, Q. D'Amato, J. A. Fernandez-Ontiveros, J. Fritz, M. Ginolfi, E. Hatziminaoglou, A. Hernan-Caballero, M. Hirschmann, M. Mingozzi, A. F. Rojas, G. Sabatini, F. Salvestrini, M. Scialpi, G. Tozzi, G. Venturi, A. Vidal-Garcia, C. Vignali, M. V. Zanchettin, A. Amiri
Published: 2025/3/27
Abstract
We present the analysis of the multi-phase gas properties in the Seyfert II galaxy NGC 424, using spatially resolved spectroscopic data from JWST/MIRI, part of the Mid-InfraRed Activity of Circumnuclear Line Emission (MIRACLE) program, as well as VLT/MUSE and ALMA. We trace the properties of the multi-phase medium, from cold and warm molecular gas to hot ionised gas, using emission lines such as CO(2-1), H2 S(1), [OIII]5007, [NeIII]15, and [NeV]14. These lines reveal the intricate interplay between the different gas phases within the circumnuclear region, spanning approximately 1.4x1.4 kpc^2, with a resolution of 10 pc. Exploiting the multi-wavelength and multi-scale observations of gas emission we model the galaxy disc rotation curve from scales of a few parsec up to 5 kpc from the nucleus and infer a dynamical mass of 1.09\pm0.08x10^10 M_{\odot} with a disc scale radius of 0.48\pm0.02 kpc. We detect a compact ionised outflow with velocities up to 10^3 km/s, traced by the [OIII], [NeIII], and [NeV] transitions, with no evidence of cold or warm molecular outflows. We suggest that the ionised outflow might be able to inject a significant amount of energy into the circumnuclear region, potentially hindering the formation of a molecular wind, as the molecular gas is observed to be denser and less diffuse. The combined multi-band observations also reveal, in all gas phases, a strong enhancement of the gas velocity dispersion directed along the galaxy minor axis, perpendicular to the high-velocity ionised outflow, and extending up to 1 kpc from the nucleus. Our findings suggest that the outflow might play a key role in such enhancement by injecting energy into the host disc and perturbing the ambient material.