The Halo, Hot Spots, and Jet/Cloud Interaction of PKS 2153−69

We report Chandra X-ray Observatory and 1.4 GHz Australian Long BaselineArray (LBA) observations of the radio galaxy PKS 2153--69 and its environment.The Chandra image reveals a roughly spherical halo of hot gas extending out to30 kpc around PKS 2153--69. Two depressions in the surface brightness of theX-ray halo correspond to the large scale radio lobes, and interpreting these ascavities inflated with radio plasma we infer a jet power of 4x10^42 erg/s. Bothradio lobes contain hot spots that are detected by Chandra. In addition, thesouthern hot spot is detected in the 1.4 GHz LBA observation, providing thehighest linear resolution image of a radio lobe hot spot to date. The northernhot spot was not detected in the LBA observation. The radio to X-ray spectra ofthe hot spots are consistent with a simple power law emission model. Thenucleus has an X-ray spectrum typical of a type 1 active galactic nucleus, andthe LBA observation shows a one-sided nuclear jet on 0.1" scales. Approximately10" northeast of the nucleus, X-ray emission is associated with anextra-nuclear cloud. The X-ray emission from the cloud can be divided into tworegions, an unresolved western component associated with a knot of radioemission (in a low resolution map), and a spatially extended eastern componentaligned with the pc-scale jet and associated with highly ionized opticalline-emitting clouds. The X-ray spectrum of the eastern component is very soft(Gamma > 4.0 for a power law model or kT ~0.22 keV for a thermal plasma). TheLBA observation did not detect compact radio emission from the extra-nuclearcloud. (Abstract truncated).Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. It is tentatively scheduled for the ApJ 10 April 2005, v623 1 issu