Blue lobes in the Hydra A cluster central galaxy

We present new U- and I-band images of the centrally dominant galaxy in the Hydra A cluster, obtained with the 2.5 m Isaac Newton Telescope at La Palma. The galaxy is centered in a poor, X-ray-luminous cluster whose gaseous intracluster medium is apparently cooling at a rate of m-dot(sub CF) approximately 3000 solar masses/yr. The galaxy's structure is that of a normal giant elliptical galaxy, apart from the central approximately 8 x 6 arcsec (approximately 12 x 9 kpc) region which contains an unusually blue, lobelike structure that is spatially coincident with a luminous emission-line nebula in rotation about the nucleus. Based on near spatial coincidence of the central continuum structure and the emission-line nebula, we suggest that the blue continuum is due to a warm stellar population in a central disk. In order to isolate and study the structure of the disk, we have subtracted a smooth galactic background model from the U-band image. The disk's surface brightness profiles along its major and minor axes decline roughly exponentially with radius. The disk's axial ratio is consistent with a nearly edge-on thick disk or a thin disk that is inclined with respect to the line of sight. The bluest regions, located a few arcsec on either side of the nucleus (giving the lobelike appearance), may be due to locally enhanced star formation or a seeing-blurred ring of young stars embedded in the disk observed nearly edge-on. If star-formation is occurring with the local initial mass function, the central color, surface brightness, and dynamical mass would be consistent with models for star formation at a rate of less than and approximately 1 solar masses/yr which has persisted for the past approximately 10(exp 9) yr, a short burst (10(exp 7) yr) of star formation at a rate of approximately 30 solar masses/yr which occurred less than and approximately 10(exp 8) yr ago, or an instantaneous burst of star formation which occurred approximately 5 x 10(exp 7) yr ago. While the young population contributes approximately 30%-40% of the central U-band luminosity, its mass would be less than and approximately 1% to less than and approximately 10% (10(exp 8) solar masses - 2 x 10(exp 9) solar masses of the galaxy's central dynamical mass. We consider a number of possible origins for the disk material.