The Obscured Nucleus and Shocked Environment of VV 114E Revealed by JWST/MIRI Spectroscopy

Understand

Compact Obscured Nuclei (CONs) potentially hide extreme supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth behind large column densities of gas/dust.

• We present a spectroscopic analysis of the heavily obscured nucleus and the surrounding environment of the eastern region of the nearby ($z = 0.02007$) interacting galaxy VV 114 with the JWST Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).
• We model the spectrum from 4.9 - 28 $\mu$m to extract Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) emission and the underlying obscured continuum.
• We find that the NE nucleus (A) is highly obscured where the low PAH equivalent width (EW) ratio, EW(12.7)/EW(11.3), reveals a dust enshrouded continuum source.