Patrick Ogle (Spitzer Science Center, Caltech)

"Discovery of H2 Luminous Radio Galaxies"

The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered a population of radio galaxies with very
strong molecular hydrogen emission lines from large quantities (106-109 Msun) of shock-heated
molecular gas. Many of these galaxies are members of interacting pairs in groups or clusters
of galaxies. We hypothesize that the molecular gas is delivered by galaxy collisions, then
shock-heated by the radio jet. This warm molecular gas appears to be inefficient at forming stars,
perhaps providing a direct example of limiting star formation by radio jet feedback.