Description
The nuclei of merging galaxies are often deeply buried in dense layers of gas and dust. In these regions, gas outflows driven by starburst and active galactic nuclear activity are believed to play a crucial role in the evolution of these galaxies. However, to fully understand this process it is essential to resolve the morphology and kinematics of such outflows. Using near-infrared integral-field spectroscopy obtained with SINFONI on the Very Large Telescope, we detect a kpc-scale structure of high-velocity molecular hydrogen (H_2_) gas associated with the deeply buried secondary nucleus of the infrared-luminous merger-galaxy NGC 3256. We show that this structure is most likely the hot component of a molecular outflow, which was recently also detected in the cold molecular gas through CO emission.
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