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Gauging the Hidden Hot Nucleus of NGC 4418 with submillimeter Interferometry

Image Credit: Sakamoto, Aalto, Costagliola, Martin, Ohyama, Wiedner, & Wilner

NGC 4418 is nearby luminous infrared galaxy whose nucleus is deeply shrouded in dust.

Our SMA submillimeter observations at sub-arcsec resolution revealed a ~20 pc dusty core with L_bol ~ 10¹¹ L_⊙ ~ L_galaxy, L_bol/M_dyn ~ 500 L_⊙/M_⊙, and N_H ≧ 10²⁵ cm^-2 (Compton thick). We also found a sign of a nuclear wind. (Sakamoto, Aalto, Costagliola, Martin, Ohyama, Wiedner, & Wilner, 2013, ApJ, 764, 42)