New Observations and a New Interpretation of CO(3--2) in IRAS F10214+4724

D. Downes, P. M. Solomon, S. R. Radford

Published 1995-08-28Version 1

New observations with the IRAM interferometer of CO(3--2) from the highly luminous galaxy IRAS F10214+4724 show the source is 1.5'' x <= 0.9'' ; they display no evidence of any velocity gradient. This size, together with optical and IR data that show the galaxy is probably gravitationally lensed, lead to a new model for the CO distribution. In contrast to many lensed objects, we have a good estimate of the intrinsic CO and far IR surface brightnesses, so we can derive the CO and far IR/sub-mm magnifications. The CO is magnified 10 times and has a true radius of 400 pc. and the far IR is magnified 13 times and has a radius of 250 pc. The true far IR luminosity is 4 to 7e12 Lsun and the molecular gas mass is 2e10 Msun . This is nearly an order of magnitude less than previously estimated. Because the far IR magnification is lower than the mid and near IR magnification, the intrinsic spectral energy distribution now peaks in the far infrared. That is, nearly all of the energy of this object is absorbed and re-emitted in the far infrared. In CO luminosity, molecular gas content, CO linewidth, and corrected far IR luminosity, 10214+472 is a typical, warm, IR ultraluminous galaxy.