Abstract
THE discovery of broad emission lines in polarized light from the type 2 Seyfert galaxy NGC1068 led Antonucci and Miller1 to postulate the existence of a type 1 Seyfert nucleus shrouded from our direct view by a torus of molecular gas. Theoretical development2 of this idea included the suggestion that low-angular-momentum clouds in the torus are captured by the central source, fuelling the observed activity. The difficulty in applying this model to all active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is the lack of convincing evidence for molecular gas in 'bare' nucleus objects such as the quasar 3C273, which exhibits a simple power-law continuum and no excess of thermal dust emission. Here we present observations, made during the course of a survey for rotation and vibration lines of H2 emission from type 1 Seyferts and quasars, of molecular hydrogen emission from 3C273. This is the first time such emission has been seen from a radio-loud quasar.
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Kawara, K., Nishida, M. & Gregory, B. Molecular hydrogen emission from the bright quasar 3C273. Nature 341, 217–218 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/341217a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/341217a0
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