HST WFPC2 images are presented that span the inner \sim 19 kpc diameter of the edge-on galaxy NGC 3079 ; they are combined with optical , emission-line imaging spectrophotometry and VLA images of radio polarization vectors and rotation measures .
Ionized gas filaments within 9-kpc diameter project up to 3 kpc above the disk , with the brightest forming the \approx 1 kpc diameter superbubble .
They are often resolved into strands \approx 0 \farcs 3 ( 25 pc ) wide , which emerge from the nuclear CO ring as five distinct streams with large velocities and velocity dispersions ( FWHM \approx 450 km s ^ { -1 } ) .
The brightest stream emits \approx 10 \% of the superbubble H \alpha flux and extends for 250 pc along the axis of the VLBI radio jet to one corner of the base of the superbubble .
The other four streams are not connected to the jet , instead curving up to the vertical \approx 0.6 kpc above the galaxy disk , then dispersing as a spray of droplets each with \approx 10 ^ { 3 } \sqrt { f } M _ { \bigodot } of ionized gas ( the volume filling factor f > 3 \times 10 ^ { -3 } ) .
Shredded clumps of disk gas form a similar structure in hydrodynamical models of a galaxy-scale wind .
The pattern of magnetic fields and the gaseous kinematics also suggest that a wind of mechanical luminosity L _ { w } \approx 10 ^ { 43 } ergs s ^ { -1 } has stagnated in the galaxy disk at a radius of \sim 800 pc , has flared to larger radii with increasing height as the balancing ISM pressure reduces above the disk , and has entrained dense clouds into a “ mushroom vortex ” above the disk .
H \alpha emissivity of the filaments limits densities to n _ { e } > 4.3 f ^ { -1 / 2 } cm ^ { -3 } , hence kinetic energy and momentum to ( 0.4 - 5 ) \times 10 ^ { 55 } \sqrt { f } ergs and ( 1.6 - 6 ) \times 10 ^ { 47 } \sqrt { f } dyne s , respectively ; the ranges result from uncertain space velocities .
A prominent star-forming complex elsewhere in the galaxy shows a striking spray of linear filaments that extend for hundreds of parsecs to end in unresolved “ bullets . ”