Bipolar outflow of gas in the spiral galaxy NGC 3079

Very large array, radio-continuum observations of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3079 are presented. The observations reveal that the nucleus has windlike properties and that the central region of the galaxy exhibits an unusual figure-eight morphology that shows evidence of severe depolarization and a flattening spectral index away from the nucleus. A qualitative description of a model is presented to account for the observed radio properties. It is shown that a wind-driven shock propagating away from the nucleus and focused by the ambient disk gas can give rise to the observed morphology.