A closer look at NGC 7314 nuclear region: a multiwavelength analysis of the Seyfert nucleus and its surroundings

Abstract

The central regions of galaxies harbouring active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be quite complex, especially at high activity, presenting, besides variability, a variety of phenomena related, e.g. to ionization/excitation mechanisms. A detailed study is necessary in order to understand better those objects. For that reason, we performed a multiwavelength analysis of the nuclear region of the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 7314, using an optical data cube obtained with the Integral Field Unit from the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, together with Hubble Space Telescope images, X-ray data from the XMM-Newton and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array and radio data from Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array. The goals were to study the nuclear and circumnuclear emission, the emission of the AGN and the gas kinematics. The optical spectrum shows the emission of a Seyfert nucleus, with broad components in the H α and H β emission lines, characterising a type 1 AGN, with a spectrum rich in coronal emission lines. The spatial morphology of the [O iii] λ5007 suggests the presence of an ionization cone, west of the nucleus, meanwhile the east cone seems to be obscured by dust. An extended [Fe vii] λ6087 emission was also detected, which could be possibly explained by a scenario involving photoionization + shocks mechanisms. X-rays analyses showed that there are variations in the flux; however, we did not detect any variations in the column density along the line of sight. Its variability may be a consequence of changes in the AGN accretion rate. © 2022 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.