Session 66 - Radio - Loud AGN & Extragalactic Jets.
Oral session, Thursday, January 08
Monroe,

## [66.03] Detection of CO Emission from a F-R II Radio Galaxy

A. S. Evans (Caltech), D. B. Sanders (IfA, Hawaii), J. M. Mazzarella (IPAC, Caltech)

We present the first detection of CO emission in a Fanaroff-Riley Class II (i.e., lobe-dominated, edge-brightened'' radio morphology) radio galaxy. The galaxy 3C 293 has a moderately high infrared luminosity, a distorted disk-like infrared morphology with a companion, and several times the molecular gas mass of the Milky Way galaxy (assuming \alpha = M(H_2) / L^\prime_CO = 4 M_ødot (K km s^-1 pc^2 )^-1). The molecular gas is extended along the axis of the near-infrared disk and perpendicular to the radio jet, possibly because the jets have escaped through an axis unobscured by the putative nuclear torus. The data presented here on 3C 293 support the hypothesis that the radio activity in powerful radio galaxies is triggered by the merger of gas-rich galaxies, and that the molecular gas may be the fuel for the central engine in the early stages of the merger.