Probing the physics of narrow line regions in active galaxies. II. the siding spring southern seyfert spectroscopic snapshot survey (S7)

Abstract

Here we describe the Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7) and present results on 64 galaxies drawn from the first data release. The S7 uses the Wide Field Spectrograph mounted on the ANU 2.3 m telescope located at the Siding Spring Observatory to deliver an integral field of 38 × 25 arcsec at a spectral resolution of R = 7000 in the red (530–710 nm), and R = 3000 in the blue (340–560 nm). From these data cubes we have extracted the narrow-line region spectra from a 4 arcsec aperture centered on the nucleus. We also determine the Hβ and [O III] λ5007 fluxes in the narrow lines, the nuclear reddening, the reddening-corrected relative intensities of the observed emission lines, and the Hβ and [O III] λ5007 luminosities determined from spectra for which the stellar continuum has been removed. We present a set of images of the galaxies in [O III] λ5007, [N II] λ6584, and Hα, which serve to delineate the spatial extent of the extended narrow-line region and also to reveal the structure and morphology of the surrounding H II regions. Finally, we provide a preliminary discussion of those Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 galaxies that display coronal emission lines in order to explore the origin of these lines.